Testing Strength

Chen Mu's breakthrough naturally drew the attention of Xuetian. Xuetian looked Chen Mu up and down, then grinned and said, "A Purple Gold Origin Pill? Not bad, not bad. Even in the Immortal Realm and the Demonic Realm, this puts you among the elite. In terms of primordial qi quality at the same realm, you are at most weaker by ten percent compared to those heavenly prides like the Dao Children and Demon Children of the supreme sects. Now that you have emerged from seclusion, would you like to test your strength? I can act as a free sparring partner."

Seeing that Xuetian had seen through his foundation at a single glance, Chen Mu secretly admired the old monster's discernment. When he heard that Xuetian wanted to help him test his strength, Chen Mu's mind raced.

Indeed, after his breakthrough, Chen Mu had an intense desire to stretch his muscles and test his combat prowess. Since Xuetian had offered, it could not be better timed.

Moreover, he also wanted to know the magnitude of the gap between them. Xuetian had undoubtedly broken through to at least the mid-stage of the Origin Pill Realm, and perhaps even the late stage.

However, that did not matter. What mattered was that he needed to know Xuetian's current strength so that he would have even greater motivation to catch up.

The man and the demon walked towards a martial arts arena. Xuetian stood opposite Chen Mu, looking at him leisurely, while Chen Mu loosened his joints before gazing solemnly at Xuetian and saying, "I won't use amplification secret techniques or physical melee attacks; this is just to familiarize myself with my new realm, so there's no need to take it too seriously. Therefore, please appropriately control your strength. I know your current realm far surpasses mine, likely exceeding the mid-stage of the Origin Pill Realm and possibly reaching the late stage. Although I am unwilling to accept this, it has become my motivation to surpass you in my cultivation."

Hearing these words, Xuetian smiled happily. It was unclear whether he was pleased that Chen Mu had taken him as a goal or simply mocking Chen Mu for overestimating his own capabilities in wanting to surpass him.

Perhaps both factors were at play. After all, while taking him as a target was a good thing for Chen Mu, surpassing him was utterly impossible.

After all, he was the reincarnation of an avatar of an old monster who had lived for countless years, starting anew through possession. Both his experience and perspective vastly exceeded Chen Mu's by countless multiples. How could such an old monster, retraining with vast knowledge and experience, ever be surpassed by Chen Mu?

Although Xuetian's advancement speed was exceptionally fast, the solidity of his foundation was certainly no less than Chen Mu's, and perhaps even superior.

Xuetian's current cultivation path was a comprehensive cultivation method combining the ways of the demon race and human demonic cultivators. Since his current body was a human one, demon race techniques probably could not be practiced directly, but this did not hinder him from drawing upon his former demon race techniques and combining them with the human demonic cultivation techniques he had collected in the past.

In the distant past, many human demonic cultivators were vassals of the demon race, so such demonic cultivation techniques could be found in abundance. Furthermore, demon techniques and demonic cultivation techniques shared many commonalities in concept and essence.

It was merely due to the structural differences between human and demon bodies that led to significant discrepancies and deviations in details such as energy transportation pathways, which was why the techniques of the two races could not be mutually practiced.

However, this did not preclude the possibility of mutual cross-reference. Demonic cultivation techniques were originally derived from demon techniques. Naturally, the demon race would never have bothered to study human demonic cultivation techniques, but since Xuetian had possessed a human body, cross-referencing and exploring the possibilities between demon techniques and demonic cultivation techniques was a necessity.

Ever since possessing the human body and beginning to study demonic cultivation techniques alongside his own clan's cultivation methods, Xuetian had recognized that these modified human techniques possessed unique merits. The human method of condensing power into a pill and further into a nascent soul was also quite profound.

Although the demon race did not condense an origin pill, they would form a core. The method of condensing an origin pill was presumably derived by imitating the formation of this core.

However, the demon race did not take the further step of transforming it into a nascent soul, whereas demonic cultivators and daoist cultivators had respectively researched methods to transform it into a demonic infant or a nascent soul to further upgrade their magical power core.

The cultivation systems of the demon race also varied widely: some focused primarily on magical power; some on soul power; and others on an indestructible physical body. For instance, the Blood Demon Clan to which Xuetian belonged were demons who cultivated the physical body and the power of blood.

However, the Blood Demon Clan did not cultivate physical strength and bodily toughness; instead, they focused on regeneration and recovery—an undying physique capable of regrowing severed limbs or even regenerating completely from a single drop of blood.

Nevertheless, such a blood physique required the consumption of massive amounts of flesh and blood to regenerate. Because Xuetian's avatar had not yet cultivated to the absolute mastery level, he did not possess the power of complete regeneration from a single drop of blood; otherwise, his physical body would not have been ambushed and destroyed, forcing him to possess a human to restart his cultivation.

While the Blood Demon Clan's regeneration from a drop of blood sounded impressive, as long as one had not reached the true realm of absolute regeneration, their existence within the demon race was not top-tier. After all, if someone obliterated you completely before you could recover, you would truly be dead.

The Blood Demon Clan's most formidable skill was actually manipulating blood to enhance their own strength. As long as they continuously absorbed blood, they could grow unceasingly stronger. Blood served as both a tonic and a weapon; the Blood Demon Clan could manipulate an enemy's blood to reverse flow and rampage, disrupting the opponent's movements. This tactic had proven unfailing and victorious time and again.

Naturally, this trick could only be used against enemies of comparable strength or weaker than themselves. If they encountered a true powerhouse, it would at most cause a slight discomfort and nothing more.

Of course, the Blood Demon Clan possessed many other methods and did not rely solely on manipulating blood to fight, but their research and application of blood were undoubtedly the most exceptional.

Although Xuetian appeared unimaginably formidable in Chen Mu's eyes, this was merely a test of Chen Mu's own strength, so Xuetian would not use his former clan's blood secret techniques; he would merely suppress his cultivation and spar normally with Chen Mu.

Having loosened his muscles, Chen Mu made the first move. After all, this was a test of his own strength; surely he couldn't expect Xuetian to initiate the attack?

Stepping with the Nine Nether Leaving Dust Pace, Chen Mu approached Xuetian like a phantom, his hands simultaneously releasing malevolent origin energy orbs that bombarded toward Xuetian.

Demonic qi churned around Xuetian, and a dark crimson blood-colored light shield directly intercepted the two malevolent energy orbs. Xuetian chuckled lightly, clearly finding the attack harmless and trivial.

However, the power of these malevolent energy orbs was vastly superior to when Chen Mu had been at the peak of the Origin Foundation Realm. Ordinary practitioners at the Origin Pill Realm would undoubtedly have suffered significant injuries from them.

Yet Chen Mu's current opponent was Xuetian, so hoping to injure Xuetian with these energy orbs was unrealistic. Chen Mu had never intended to pin his hopes on them anyway; he was simply using them as a distracting spell in combat.

Soon, Chen Mu held the Scarlet Sun Sword in his right hand. Sword shadows danced as the unfinished Sunset Sword Technique was unleashed in his grasp.

Now that he had broken through to the Origin Pill Realm, it was time to consider fusing the Brahma Star Sword Technique with the latter stances of the Sunset style. The remaining three stances of Chen Mu's Sunset Sword Technique had not yet been comprehended and fused for the simple reason that those three stances could only be used at the Origin Pill Realm.

Upon breaking through, those obscure and difficult-to-comprehend aspects of the last three stances in the Brahma Star Sword Technique were instantly resolved, and they could now be fully executed using the primordial qi circulation method of the Sunset style.

Although the initial power left much to be desired, Chen Mu gradually corrected his errors through his own comprehension and practice, initiating a deeper integration.

Soon, the power of the newly comprehended tenth, eleventh, and twelfth swords of the Sunset Sword Technique was increasing at a visible rate. Although Xuetian did not hold the power of this sword technique in high regard—blocking it with the dark crimson light shield while casually maneuvering around—he was extremely shocked by Chen Mu's comprehension ability.

In the span of barely a dozen moves, the sword technique was actually being progressively perfected and enhanced in power by Chen Mu, reaching the standard expected of Origin Pill Realm sword moves. Furthermore, Chen Mu continued to refine, practice, and deduce it; as time passed, the power of these sword moves even surpassed their blueprint, the Brahma Star Sword Technique.

Moreover, those twelve sword stances originally possessed flaws and defects in every single movement, but through his instincts and dozens more rounds of combat with Xuetian, Chen Mu had basically corrected them all. The twelve newly birthed stances of the Sunset Sword Technique had undergone a complete metamorphosis. Though a trace of the Brahma Star Sword Technique's shadow remained, the difference was now vast and astronomical—they were completely different things.

The Sunset Sword Technique was overbearing, fierce, and supremely yang; it was unpretentious, sweeping, concise, and possessed very few flaws. In contrast, the Brahma Star Sword Technique was dominated by starlight energy; while powerful, it lacked an overbearing aura, possessing a sense of solemnity instead. Furthermore, the Brahma Star Sword Technique was not known for raw power, but rather for the speed of its swordplay and strikes.

The Brahma Star Sword Technique struck like shooting stars flashing across the sky, prioritizing speed and skill while treating power as secondary. The Sunset Sword Technique, however, relied on the output of supreme and fierce yang primordial qi. While the sword moves inherited its cleverness, they discarded the drifting, erratic feel, transforming instead into concise, unpretentious offensive and defensive maneuvers that clashed directly with the enemy.

Chen Mu was better suited for direct, head-on clashes. This tendency had only begun to manifest after he reshaped his body into that of a divine being.

After all, he had tasted the sweetness of breaking through all techniques with sheer force and massive output. This savage, crude, and direct style was arguably the most exhilarating.

Chen Mu's sword techniques grew increasingly concise and refined. Their power had reached a level of destructiveness that Xuetian could no longer withstand within his restricted strength. The rampaging yang primordial qi caused Xuetian a great deal of irritation, as supreme and fierce yang primordial qi was an extremely unwelcoming existence for the demon race.

Finally, Chen Mu's sword moves shattered Xuetian's defensive light barrier, nearly slashing directly into his body.

However, Chen Mu stopped right at the limit and did not bring the sword down. Moreover, after the light barrier shattered, Xuetian timely raised another layer of protective demonic qi around his body.

Looking at Chen Mu's sword techniques thoughtfully, Xuetian said, "Your comprehension ability is truly remarkable. In a short period of time, you've managed to execute this sword technique—which was previously full of flaws—in such a decent manner. Furthermore, the strength that I assumed you could never break through has actually been pierced by you. It seems I still underestimated you."

Chen Mu sighed and said, "Stop saying flattering things. Breaking your defense had a lot to do with attribute suppression. If my yang primordial qi hadn't been able to suppress your demonic qi, how could I have mastered breaking a defense of that strength level so quickly?"

Xuetian shook his head noncommittally. He felt that Chen Mu still vastly underestimated his own comprehension ability. Perhaps in Chen Mu's eyes, Xuetian's standing was too terrifying, which led him to position himself so lowly.

Chen Mu indeed thought this way. He felt that if he stood at the same realm as Xuetian, he would likely lose—this was a self-assessment made under the condition of not using certain ultimate trump cards.

For instance, employing moves that meant mutual destruction upon execution, such as activating the Blood-Burning Transformation and superimposing the Thunder Flood Dragon phantom with the Sunset style. If he used those, Chen Mu would instantly pass out from exhaustion; even if he defeated Xuetian, he would fall into a prolonged state of inability to wake up. In that state, any ordinary cultivator could take his life.