Chapter 269: The hell-heaven laws

"The layout of this formation is fairly unique in the sense that it could ward off the fire energy completely. This would be the perfect place to break-through to a fire element law base. It's too bad that you couldn't proceed in that direction as of now. But the formation would still provide a great location for break-through."

"Such a grand formation is sure to give rise to the turbulent Qi conditions we were looking forward to."

"You still haven't briefed me about the requirements while connecting with a weapon or body law."

"Body laws and weapons laws are not that different from each other. The only real difference occurs in the ability you are looking forward to while you break-through. Body law, as the name suggests, is a path which helps you connect to physically attributed law. Although new compound laws are being discovered continuously, the most powerful body laws which I know of are the Divine Barbarian and Fiend law."

"There are also specific attributed laws, like the law of force, strength and speed. But the thing remains, that they wouldn't give you an all-round development like the first two laws. You also need to have proficiency in these domains to be able to realize it."

"I have practiced arts which are concentrating specifically on these attributes. I guess I should be able to connect with them."

"You might have a good affinity with each one of them, but you need to choose the combination of laws wisely. The combination which complements each other the best is what you should go with. Another fact which you need to keep in mind is to consider the path ahead of you."

"The law which you connect with dictates what sort of Emperor you will become, and the stages thereafter will also be affected."

"Could you give me a hint about what an Emperor means in the cultivation world?"

"The three intermediate stages refer to the path which you need to take before beginning your preparation to ascension. Qi King is the level where you connect upon a certain set of laws and continuously practice them until you reach an absolute saturation point. That is when you are said to have reached the peak of Qi King."

"The next step is to reform your body with the help of the laws you have connected with. The Emperor level corresponds to creating a law body. Think of it as refining your own body with the help of the laws you have practised."

'Wouldn't it be extremely difficult to refine your body with your own laws? External agents would be the best option for this." Li Meng speculated the reason the Ti Shen was able to recover so soon is because of the Qi vein.

"That is the misconception most of the Qi Kings have before they enter the Qi Emperor stage. It is not a realm which could be climbed with the help of external agents, no matter how powerful they are. Only the law which is cultivated by you can be used to refine your body. Each refinement leads to an upgrade in the base."

This might be the reason why cultivation decreases immensely as one upgrades his cultivation level.

"There is another matter which I want you to concentrate on."

"Is it a possible combination you want me to connect with?" Li Meng was hopeful that the Keeper would hint him toward a potential path.

"No. What I want to discuss with you is related to the other two methods you are practicing. You are probably the only cultivator whom I know to have followed three simultaneous cultivation systems in the Qi domain alone. For the Crimson World scripture, you are about to connect with elemental laws. But what about the other two?"

"The normal cultivation system is just a bunch of additional scriptures which I need to cultivate to cover the power of the other two. It's just a hoax and could be complemented by the elemental laws and the weapon laws which I am going to practice."

"I am insisting on the Hell-Heaven Qi you practice in." The Keeper came directly to the main point he was concerned about.

"I have no clear idea which laws would complement Hell-Heaven qi the best."

"Hell-Heaven Qi are diametrically opposite QI which have come to an absurd coexistence in your body. Both of them concentrate on strength and vitality above anything else. Hence, I suggest that the best way to appease the Hell-Heaven Qi requirement is body laws."

"Are you suggesting that I connect with Fiend and Heavenly Barbarian laws?" Those were the two most powerful body laws according to the Keeper's description.

"I suggest you practice some additional body laws along with it. A possible path to follow is blood law. Although it is generally thought of as a sinister law of the dark path, it does give you extreme control over your blood energy. You have tempered your blood to a very high level. You might be able to connect with it quite easily."

"I have also tempered my flesh and skin. Are there any laws which complement that?" Li Meng was trying to be sarcastic, but the Keeper didn't mind.

"The fiend and Heavenly barbarian could take care of those attributes. You need to think about it seriously. It is a path you need to follow to maintain proper balance in your cultivation base. But breaking through the Qi King level and connecting with the body laws is quite complicated."

"It couldn't be more complicated than the elemental laws."

"In the elemental laws, you just take the help of resources which have the same attribute as your element and try to connect with the law. The resources work both as a catalyst and a back-up energy module. In the case of body laws, resource quality changes drastically. Instead of elemental stones, you will use Blood essence, and some earthen element resources."

"Fire and earth element resources work as a booster resource which gives you the replenishing effect, but the boost is provided by the blood essence and your own flesh energy." Li Meng got nervous about hearing this factor. This was going to become a huge hurdle while connecting with the laws. He could easily remember the amount of energy required to connect with a single Heavenly law. He was drained countless times.

"You don't need to fear. We just need to modify the formation laid before and make it capable enough of transmitting blood essence as it did with Qi. The source will be the blood essence pool in the Heaven Cleaving sect's treasure. The formation would be formulated by me, just concentrate on the combination as of now."

"What attributed law should I go for according to you?"

"Rather than an attributed connection, I would suggest that you connect with both the body laws I suggested initially." The Keeper wanted Li Meng to connect with both the fiend and Heavenly Barbarian law.

"But that would be impossible. The essence of energy within the body is way less than the QI reserves. I managed to connect with three Heavenly laws because of my huge Qi reserves, but Avatars couldn't share essence energy during break-through. I also don't believe that two-body laws would be all that necessary for me."

"The two laws are way different from each other. Fiend law corresponds to Hell QI, while Heavenly Barbarian law, as the name suggests, is a law which corresponds to refining your body with Heavenly energy. If you choose either one of them, you are going to create an incredible imbalance within your system. It is exactly like the fact that you need to complete the whole element set."

"A single difference between the magnitude of the two energy sources would give rise to devastating results."

"The incomplete element set isn't showing any disfunction as of now."

"It is because you compensated somewhat by connecting with earthen element laws. Even that set would show a huge misgiving shortly. You need to complete the set by connecting with the other two elemental laws." Li Meng nodded in agreement. He needed to think about ways to connect with both of them at the same time now.

"Couldn't I just connect with one of them at the moment, and connect with the other sometime later?"

"Some balances would be instantly disfigured and reactive if you don't take care of either side. This cave might be the best opportunity for trying to connect with the weapon and body laws. If we can find an ancient cultivation retreat of someone quite powerful, you could begin to use this as the perfect retreat for future breakthroughs."

"I guess we need to find the leader of this stronghold soon enough. Not only do multiple Qi veins remain hanging by his news, so does my future break-throughs."

Li Meng finally reached the very end of the entrance tunnel, which led to a fairly small common hall. He hid in a secluded corner and began to examine the surroundings. The cave didn't seem to have any trigger formation, so he was fairly certain that his location had not been compromised. It's finally time to find the leader of the group.