CHAPTER 60: CHAPTER 60: INFERIOR TO WARRING STATES

Chen Guan once again entered the Pingdu Mountain Blessed Land. The light and shadows shifted before his eyes, and before long, he found himself in a mountain hollow.

"No way, am I still on the Fifteenth of July Island?" Chen Guan was slightly astonished in his heart, as the environment here was too similar to the Fifteenth of July Island.

Soon, Chen Guan realized that this was not the Fifteenth of July Island. Although it was a remote mountainous area, he could still see many human cultivators walking through the mountains.

Some cultivators were running using their legs, each of them traversing walls and buildings, and their lightweight skill seemed extraordinary.

Some cultivators were traveling on mounts, primarily consisting of oxen and horses, which were the common Ghost-headed Horses and Ghost-headed Oxen found on the Fifteenth of July Island.

There were also other types of pet mounts, all appearing eerie and not very bright or attractive.

However, there were no Ghost-headed Sheep or Ghost-headed Vultures to be found here at all.

Chen Guan knew he had finally arrived in the ordinary region of the Pingdu Mountain Blessed Land. In many Secret Realms that have been developed for many years, the population of cultivators is very large, which is quite normal.

After the Ten Celestial Kings reorganized the Ancestral Court, the population has been exploding due to the resources of the Secret Realms.

Before the Emperor Ancestor breached the Celestial Secret Realm, the Divine Land’s population had reached nearly a trillion. However, due to subsequent chaos, at the beginning of the Ten Celestial Kings’ reconstruction of the Ancestral Court, the population almost fell below ten billion. It can be said that during that dark and chaotic era, less than one in ten survived.

Until now, the population has broken through 200 billion, with the permanent population of the Divine Land being only a few hundred million, as most people live year-round in the Secret Realms.

Many Secret Realms have developed into super metropolises, and various forces have their own cities within the Secret Realms.

Chen Guan made inquiries and learned that the area he was in was called the Ghost King Mountain Range, under the jurisdiction of "Reincarnation City".

Reincarnation City is the city of the Shang Family, one of the Ten Great Families, and the head of the Shang Family is the King of Shang among the Ten Celestial Kings.

Since the Pingdu Mountain Blessed Land is not a private Secret Realm of any family, not only the Shang Family but all Ten Great Families have their cities here. There are even some other small families who have built cities here.

It can be said that most of the areas that have been explored in the Pingdu Mountain Blessed Land are now claimed, with the territories of various forces clearly delineated.

The Secret Spirits in each area seem wild, but in reality, they all have affiliations.

Chen Guan, wanting to kill Secret Spirits here, can only join a force, or pay a certain entrance fee, or go to unexplored areas.

The unexplored areas are places even high-level cultivators cannot conquer. Going there now would be like signing his death warrant, so he can only choose to join a force or pay an entrance fee.

Now Chen Guan began to miss the Fifteenth of July Island, where Secret Spirits could be easily slain, and there were so many high-quality Secret Spirits—finding such a good place again won’t be easy.

Fortunately, places with only level 1 or 2 Secret Spirits have not been fenced off by major powers, and he can go there without paying a fee.

Seeing himself safe and no longer threatened by Secret Spirits, Chen Guan found an uninhabited place and, with the fastest speed, used the Gaba Bracelet of the Grave Master.

The Gaba beads strung on the bracelet shattered, and threads of blood, like parasites, drilled into Chen Guan’s arm, madly consuming his primordial energy and some unknown substances.

In no time, those threads of blood turned black, and Chen Guan’s level kept decreasing, with primordial energy diminishing as well.

Until his level returned to 1, those threads, now pitch-black, turned into black smoke, rising and dissipating, vanishing without a trace.

"My path of cultivation is truly about to begin." Chen Guan commenced the operation of the Secret Technique of One.

As the Secret Technique of One circulated, the primordial energy between heaven and earth flowed into Chen Guan’s body like water down a drain.

After only one circulation of the Secret Technique of One, Chen Guan’s level surprisingly rose to 2.

Chen Guan was both surprised and delighted, as the Secret Technique of One was truly unexpected, rising in level merely by absorbing wandering heaven and earth elemental energy in the Secret Realm.

However, such easy level advancement made Chen Guan worry about whether the growth rate would be high.

After all, the Emperor Ancestor created this secret technique just for humans to cultivate themselves, without specifying how high the growth rate should be.

If the growth rate of this secret technique does not reach the level of an unparalleled secret technique, Chen Guan would still need to find an unparalleled secret technique.

He hurriedly looked inward at his own information to see exactly what level this Secret Technique of One was.

Cultivator: Level 2.

Primordial Energy: 2.

Lifebound Talent: Spirit of the Cheerleaders (Top Secret).

Top Secret File: Ultimate of the Infinite.

Secret Technique: Nameless Secret Technique (Unknown), Undying Stealth Killing Skill (Unique), Longevity Skill (Common).

Secret Skill: Blood Hand Seal (Rare), Blood Sacrifice Feeding Magic (Unparalleled).

Secret Treasure: Corpse Turtle Leather Boots (Common), Corpse Turtle Half-Body Armor (Rare).

Secret Spirit: Warring States (Common), Bloody Evil Adorable Rabbit (Unparalleled), Mutated Grave Master (Unique), Ming Fei (Unparalleled).

Chen Guan was instantly dumbfounded. He had risen to level 2, but the primordial energy was only 2 points. The base for level 1 already included 1 point, meaning cultivating the Secret Technique of One added only 1 point per level, and the growth rate was only 1.0. This growth rate was lower than the Warring States and was worse than a dog.

"No way... the secret technique created by the Emperor Ancestor... can’t be this garbage..." Chen Guan’s heart was filled with disbelief, yet he had to confront the reality.

He checked countless times, and the results were the same. At level 2, primordial energy was only 2, without even a decimal point, an increase of exactly one primordial energy.

Chen Guan felt like his heart was about to burst. The secret technique he had acquired with painstaking effort turned out to be this worthless.

Now he no longer had the secret treasures needed for reconstruction, and to start over, he would need to spend a large amount of money to buy them, but sometimes, even money cannot obtain precious reconstruction secret treasures.

"The Secret Technique of One can’t be this worthless; could Ming Fei have tricked me? Gave me a fake secret technique?" Chen Guan thought, but he found it unlikely.

Those hundreds of thousands of volumes could not have been produced by a single Secret Spirit, as many of the knowledge points and cultural heritage within were those that only human civilization could write, not something conjured by a Secret Spirit.

Moreover, the River Map and Luo Book and Yi Jing need to be understood to find this real cultivation technique from those tomes, which isn’t something a Secret Spirit could comprehend.

Chen Guan believed the Secret Technique of One to be true, but if so, why did it have such a low growth rate?

"Could it be that the Secret Technique of One has a very low growth rate but possesses special effects?" Chen Guan stopped cultivating, preparing to test what effects the Secret Technique of One truly had.

Emerging from the uninhabited place, Chen Guan entered an area filled with wandering souls and wild ghosts. Wandering souls and wild ghosts are two types of Secret Spirits, and the most common in the Pingdu Mountain Blessed Land, generally level 1 or 2, with low combat power, only capable of biting or similar attack techniques. More powerful ones might possess the Screaming Secret Skill, enhancing their combat strength and intimidating enemies—considered a kind of auxiliary secret skill but with very limited effectiveness.