Finally, after resting for three whole days was Long Tao able to lift his body.
In the last few days, Long Tao had cultivated arduously without taking even a single break.
First, developing the 12 forges of death continuously until the 5th Forge realm, and now completed the creation of the heavenly pestle without slacking off even a single day for rest.
If compared to the first time when he started practicing the art, one would faintly remember that Long Tao physique had undergone massive changes.
Now after the 5th stage forge was complete, Long Tao's body was quite chiseled out.
His height had grown by at least 2-3 feet. Every part of his body has been chiseled out in the perfect proportion. Even the faintly pale skin of Long Tao could be seen to have brighter and brighter.
His strength was nearly that of a cultivator of the 8th realm of body forging. (Each realm of body forging according to the clan's method provided the power of 1
The hell forge art could be said to be on a whole different level. The initial body strength of Long Tao before even practicing the art was around that of 1000 horses.
Each level of hell forging arts seems to be adding the strength of 2000 horses, and after every two-stage, the power addition doubles. So currently, the strength of Long Tao was near to 21,000 horses that were already above what his clan 's training manuals could provide.
His body has already become tyrannical, but there will still seven stages remaining before the completion of his foundation forging.
He couldn't imagine as to what level he could reach after completion of his foundation. He also started to contemplate as to how powerful the ones might be, who got to cultivate this art.
If one could peek inside the body of Long Tao, one could see various runes being implanted on every section of his body.
They were maroon and golden runes all-around may be traced to the fact that the forged art which Long Tao practiced and the dual combination of Golden and black Ki that carry out the transformation, after multiple cycles have advanced the characteristics of his body to an unprecedented level.
These runes were the embodiment of the mantra he practiced.
But one needs to speculate that initially, the mantra was to practice with the help of only Hell Ki. But due to the unknown phenomena, the golden Ki also got automatically absorbed, entering the body, reforming it the same way hell's Ki did, and then the formation of runes.
One could call this a miracle and, at the same time formation of a new type of incredible art. It cultivated the body in the same way that the hell's Ki did, but at the same time, with the help of the Golden Ki.
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In another place-
Long Shen sat down on the couch in his manor with his depressed wife. After the death of their son, he and his wife both lamented their loss, and often the sounds of crying could be heard among this section of the manor.
His heart couldn't find peace with the fact that he will never be able to see his son again in the future. But after a period of isolation, Long Shen forced himself back to reality.
In addition to being a father who lost his son, he also had the identity of the clan lord of the Long clan. He couldn't whimper back from his duties and was required to work for the betterment of his clan and clan members.
After a day or two, he called upon the meeting of elders again. " I hope you people know about the forthcoming annual competition to be held at the royal Jiao city. Did you manage to make the list of candidates."
An elder like a figure came forward, bowed, and greeted Long Shen And said," We have chosen a group of 10 individuals to be nurtured by our clan. They are Long Bao, Long Shi, Long Zhen, Long Si, Long Mengchen, Long Ti, Long Hua, Long Zhenyue, Long Duanren. The last individual, Long Zhengyi, has been with her master and practicing there. We decided to send her the cultivation resources and finance required for the expenditure, Long Zhengyi, and Long Duanren are the people with the highest strength. Long Mengchen is the most talented one among the bunch. "
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Long Shen glimpsed at the reports, and after brief scrutiny of all the details given, he nodded his head and ordered the meeting to be conjured and disperse the elders.
Only A little more than a year remained in their hands. They must do their best to cultivate the younger generation and enable them to win the battle in the royal city at the event of celebration.
It was to shut the mouths of their opponents and stabilize their stand in the empire.
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Unknown to all this Long Tao, who was currently seated in the dark cave, was lost incomprehension. Before he immersed himself in the cultivation of the 'Heaven Pestle art", he wanted to confirm for one last time, all the rules, instruction, and precautions mentioned in the manual.
The optimum instruction was to immerse one soul in between the pestle and allow it to rotate and crush the soul, grinding it continuously. One has to let the pestle grind and mold the soul into a more substantial level. After every five rotations, one can go to the next level.
It made Long Tao contemplate the fact that since the pestle was created with the help of a limited amount of his own soul Ki, wouldn't it be unable to grind his soul after some time.
The answer popped up into his mind and was that the grinder after creation become the center of the soul world of the person. It connects with the origin of the whole world, and as one increases the level of his soul, the might of the heavenly pestle also increases with them. Therefore, after each round of grinding, the power of the grinder will rise to a whole new level. And as the Soul power of one goes on increasing, the pestle crush would become more and more difficult as well as more tormenting.
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When Long Tao entered his soul world, he could feel an aura of desolate, majestic, oppressive, and destructive might rushing towards him from all directions. As he looked forward, a nine decked grinder floated in the center, extruding an aura of majesty.
As per the cultivation manual, Long Tao now had to immerse his soul body into the pestle, and as soon as he starts reciting the mantra, the grinder will start grinding automatically. All Long Tao had to do after that was to bear with the pressure, not letting his soul disperse as the churning is in process.
Long Tao relaxed his state, and his soul body entered the pestle. He then began the chant available in his mind.
A set of runes after outside of the grinder and an aura of light placed itself on the body of the gigantic structure, as the decks start a uniform opposite motion.
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The grinding process has begun.
Just as Long Tao thought, what could the pain amount after he cultivates the 12-forge art, his soul body start cracking.
An unbearable amount of pain started occurring in the soul of Long Tao. As the soul was slowly fragmented into smaller and smaller pieces due to the movement of most massive bodies one could imagine, Long Tao's soul was being crushed into bits.
Long Tao continued to persevere, but the consumption of his soul aura the grounding proceeds started becoming scarce. He again started chanting the 'Soul replenishing mantra.'
The process of materialization of slow manifestation and absorbing of soul Qi started again. Long Tao gradually started to feel overwhelmed by the method as his consciousness was being grounded to tiny fragments bit by bit.
As he thought his soul was about to be dispersed into nothingness, one could see the pestle coming to the last part of its cycle.
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As it stopped, the light shone again, and the enhanced soul fragments got released in the soul world, which then started to manifest as the soul body of Long Tao. After the gradual re-formation, finally, after some time, Long Tao's soul was restructured into his original shape, but one could feel the difference visibly.
Long Tao's soul, this time, gave off a much stronger sense of aura. As Long Tao exited his soul world and returned to his physical body, opening his eyes, he could feel the absolute difference in his current state.
His senses of that of the previous stage were heightened; even more, he could now capture even minute things in the atmosphere. All his body had gained a new sense of feeling as if his current soul form was much more substantial. After feeling happy for his hard work to have paid off, Long Tao soon calmed himself down. The road ahead was still long, and he couldn't help himself in momentary satisfaction.
After all, he has decided to walk on the path of the most significant obstacles, to become the dominator of all world, the most powerful being of all.