Chapter 92: Dungeon: The Strongest Man (2)
Bang!
Su Chen crushed the ground beneath his feet with one step, rushed to the nearest Black Iron Cauldron Man, and punched him.
The vibrating spiritual energy combined with the terrifying force of the Mountain Collapsing Fist seemed capable of shattering everything.
As a result, after Su Chen threw this punch, he smashed the Black Iron Cauldron Man in front of him into pieces.
The black metal fragments of the Black Iron Cauldron Man intertwined with twisted pieces of flesh and flew everywhere.
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[You killed a Black Iron Cauldron Man (Level 3 of Qi Gathering Stage) and gained 30 experience points, Black Iron Ore*1...]
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Su Chen didn't even bother to look at the information that appeared on the panel.
He rushed toward a new Black Iron Cauldron Man without stopping.
There were no fancy moves or elaborate strategies.
Su Chen simply threw out one punch, and the Black Iron Cauldron Man was shattered on the spot.
Bang, bang, bang.
Inside the mine, his figure kept moving, and each punch he threw meant the death of a Black Iron Cauldron Man.
In just a few breaths, most of the dozen or so Black Iron Cauldron Men in the mine were smashed to pieces by him.
Just as he was killing the last one, several sounds broke through the air from behind him.
Although his cultivation had not yet reached the establishment stage, and he had not developed the ability to perceive divine thoughts, he was still able to spot the sneak attack from behind thanks to the all-around vision of the Green Lotus Pupil.
The five Bronze Cauldron Men in the mine maintained their throwing actions.
Five bronze spears flew toward him at astonishing speed, covering most of his body and making it difficult to avoid them.
There was no doubt that these five spears were thrown by them.
Faced with this sneak attack, he stood in place and slammed his fists together in front of his chest.
Divine Power: Forging the Body into a Furnace!
With a surge of powerful Qi and blood gushing forth, his body was covered by a black Qi and blood furnace phantom.
The next second, the five sharp bronze spears hit his body one after another.
Bang, bang, bang.
As five crisp metallic sounds rang out, the five bronze spears that struck him broke on the spot.
It was as if they were hitting not flesh and blood but an indestructible furnace.
He looked down at the places on his body where he was hit by the bronze spears; aside from slight damage to his clothes, his skin was only slightly cut.
If he didn't go to the clinic right away, the wounds would heal on their own!
After this experiment, he had a general understanding of the defensive power of his current body-forging furnace.
Theoretically speaking, those below the sixth level of the Qi Gathering Stage could not even hurt him.
Only those who had reached the sixth level of the Qi Gathering Stage could injure him.
This was just at the small success level of Forging the Body into a Furnace.
If he waited until he had cultivated this skill to the extreme state, Su Chen speculated it would not be easy for an ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivator to break through his "Furnace Body."
In other words, while maintaining the furnace body, not only could he not move, but he would also need to consume a large amount of energy and blood.
Otherwise, the actual effect of this magical power would be too terrifying.
Su Chen was no longer prepared to continue playing with these Cauldron people.
Although he had plenty of time, he couldn't waste it!
Ding!
Su Chen stretched out his hand, and the black ring on his right hand instantly transformed into a jet-black magic sword that fell into his grip.
Then he grasped the Black Dragon Sword and placed the sword across his forehead.
The next second, a terrifying sword intent swept across the entire area.
The sword intent transformed into a dragon, and the accumulated power of water became an abyss.
The cauldron people within twenty meters of Su Chen suddenly felt as if they were falling into an abyss and gazed at him with horror on their faces.
A huge phantom of a dragon suddenly appeared behind Su Chen and looked down at them coldly from the endless abyss, as if observing a group of ants.
Faced with such a monster, the cauldron people dared not even move, let alone resist.
Suppression—this was his sword intent—absolute suppression of their momentum!
He didn't know how long it took, but in the terrified and despairing eyes of all the cauldron people, the Black Dragon Sword in his hand finally fell slowly.
"Cut."
When those cold words left Su Chen's mouth, an illusory dragon claw dropped from the sky and descended upon the many cauldron people.
This claw seemed ordinary but killed all the cauldron people on the spot!
Boom!
When the dust settled, Su Chen looked at the cleared mine and calmly put away the Black Dragon Sword.
Even the powerful Gold-Eating Ants found it difficult to resist the might of the Dragon Transformation Sword Intent, let alone these evil cauldron people who were only in the Qi Gathering Stage.
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[You killed a Black Iron Cauldron Man (Level 3 of Qi Gathering Stage) and gained 30 experience points, Black Iron Ore*1...]
[You killed a Bronze Cauldron Man (Sixth Level of Qi Gathering Stage) and obtained 60 experience points, 1 Bronze Spirit Ore, and 1 Soul Crystal Fragment (White).]
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The dense information panel jumped in front of his eyes again, and it took a while before it finally stopped.
Su Chen looked at the Bronze Spirit Ore that emerged from the Bronze Cauldron Man, took it out without hesitation, and crushed it with one palm.
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[Forging the Body Into a Weapon (Furnace Type): Small Success 6/2000]
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Looking at the experience gained from his Forging the Body into a Furnace skill proficiency that had finally increased again, Su Chen nodded with satisfaction.
Then he looked around, searching for the Bronze Spirit Ore hidden in the veins.
Soon, he found the locations of all the Bronze Spirit Ores and repeated his previous operations in the mine.
He used the Mountain Collapsing Fist to dig for Bronze Spirit Ore, then absorbed the power of gold and stone in the ore, practiced his supernatural powers, forged his body into a weapon, and repeated this process...
Ten days later in the game.
"The Mountain Collapsing Fist and Forging the Body into a Weapon have hit a bottleneck again. It's almost time for me to move on."
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[Forging the Body Into a Weapon (Furnace Type): Large Success (6/4000)]
[Effect: Can swallow gold to temper the body, become a body of fine steel, and a plastic weapon body (weapon type: furnace)]
[Special Effect Furnace: Increases the pill absorption effect by 50%]
[Mountain Collapsing Fist: Large Success 1/6000]
[Effect: Its momentum is like a mountain, its fist is like a peak, and when it punches out... the mountains collapse!]
[Innate Magical Power: Heretic Path Incarnation: First Realm 21/30]
[Current Experience Points: 8325]
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In ten days, Su Chen used a vast amount of bronze and iron ore to elevate the skill Forging the Body into a Weapon to a new level.
In the process, he also practiced the Mountain Collapsing Fist to a large success level.
It was because his skills of forging the body into a weapon and Mountain Collapsing Fist were quite special that he was able to cultivate so quickly.
If replaced with other types of skills, achieving a large success level in such a short time would be nothing but a pipe dream.
After all, forging a body into a weapon only requires consuming special ores, and what the current mineral veins lack the least is ores. This allowed for rapid improvement in forging a body into a weapon.
Although the Mountain Collapsing Fist is a boxing technique, there are many similarities between boxing and swordsmanship.
Therefore, relying on his swordsmanship skills, Su Chen was able to achieve twice the result with half the effort when practicing the Mountain Collapsing Fist.
Three days to reach the small success level, and ten days to reach the large success level.
Although this was under specific skill conditions, he felt reborn without realizing it, indicating his talent was far better than before.
Inside the huge mine, he first looked at a long and narrow mine tunnel in the distance and then fixed his gaze on the mysterious black wall in front of him that was exposed after he broke through the mine wall and fell into deep thought.
Just like there was a dungeon boss in the 'Ancient Cultivator's Tomb' and 'Ancient Cultivator's Sword Tomb' before, Su Chen knew that there must be a dungeon boss in the Strongest Man Dungeon.
Su Chen also speculated that the boss of this dungeon might be far superior to Ye Chenglin from Wanfu Peak and Fang Heng from Cangjian Peak.
After a period of exploration, Su Chen gradually identified the true nature of the mine.
This was not a mine at all; it was an extremely large spiritual vein!
And right on this spiritual vein, there was an extremely massive cauldron pressing down on it.
He discovered this when he unearthed the bronze ore and dug into a black wall.
Not only was his Mountain Collapsing Fist unable to damage the wall in the slightest, but even the enhanced power of the Green Lotus Pupil's perspective could not see through its essence.
Driven by curiosity, Su Chen even used the Dragon Transformation Sword Intent to see if he could damage the wall.
But the result shocked him.
Because his sword intent, which even the Gold-Eating Ants could not resist, could not even leave a mark on the dark wall.
This forced Su Chen to start doubting the origin of the wall.
Therefore, in the following period, Su Chen began to wander around the huge wall, using the Green Lotus Pupil to observe its entire appearance.
Not long after, a terrifying idea gradually emerged in Su Chen's mind.
That black wall... doesn't seem to be naturally formed!
It doesn't even appear to be a wall, but rather a slightly curved, colossal pillar!
With this inference, Su Chen used his incredible memory to compare the black pillar to the body of the Cauldron Man.
However, he was shocked to find that the colossal black pillar appeared to be part of the leg of a gigantic cauldron, no matter how he looked at it!
Combined with the vast spiritual vein he saw beneath the mine and the black pillar that spread down to the spiritual vein, an astonishing image finally emerged in his mind.
That is, the so-called Kangding Peak might not just imply that the physical cultivators on this peak were accustomed to exercising by carrying a cauldron.
This also means that the mountain itself... is an extremely enormous cauldron!
And the entity supporting this massive cauldron is the giant spiritual vein beneath the cauldron peak!
By using the cauldron to suppress the spiritual vein, they could seize the fortune of heaven and earth.
Su Chen couldn't help but shudder at the thought of how powerful the people who built the Qingyun Sect must have been to achieve such terrifying feats, nearly capable of moving mountains and filling the sea.
Could a cultivator in the Spirit Transformation Stage... achieve this?
Su Chen had serious doubts about this.
Given that Kangding Peak rises several thousand meters high, it is the tallest mountain in the Qingyun Sect after the main peak, Qingyun Peak.
Su Chen believed that a cultivator in the Spirit Transformation Stage could move a mountain hundreds of meters tall, but he doubted that a mountain several thousand meters high could be moved.
After recognizing part of the truth about Kangding Peak, Su Chen suddenly thought of a long-standing secret within the sect.
The so-called Qingyun Sect never represented a single sect; it might be one sect with two mountain gates.
One is in heaven, and the other is on earth.
Shock, big shock.
The moment this thought struck him, he was taken aback by his conclusion.
This not only suggested that the Qingyun Sect was much more powerful than he had imagined but also that even such a formidable sect had eventually encountered a catastrophe and disappeared in the long river of time.
This left Su Chen questioning his existence.
If this catastrophe had even affected the Thirty-Three Heavens, then could he remain unscathed in the game?
After this thought crossed his mind, Su Chen felt a huge wave slowly approaching him.
There was no escape; nowhere to run.
To find a solution, he had been in the mine for a whole day...
Inside the mine, Su Chen subconsciously bit his fingernails, his brain racing.
This was a habit he had cultivated since his previous life, and he only did it unconsciously when faced with extremely challenging problems.
After an unknown length of time, his frown gradually relaxed.
He muttered to himself, "Any great changes in the world cannot happen in an instant. There must be some signs."
"And judging from the ability of the Qingyun Sect in the game, if they had discovered that sign, it would be impossible for them not to be prepared by now."
"So this should clarify the era of the game I'm in. It should be on the eve of that catastrophe."
"Although the latest disciple I met in the dungeon was only the 75th generation, this does not mean that the Qingyun Sect only passed down to the 75th generation before it was destroyed."
"After all, once a catastrophe strikes, the sect will not be able to bury the bodies of every disciple in the sect's tomb."
"So ideally, I should have at least a thousand years left to develop in the game."
"In a thousand years, at my current pace, even if I can't become Immortal, it won't be long before I do."
"A thousand years, a thousand years..."
Su Chen muttered these words while lowering his right hand.
Then he raised his head and looked at the passage that led deep into the mine with determined eyes.
"There are fifty great ways—forty-nine of which are derived from the heavens, and one of which can be escaped by humans. I... should still have a glimmer of hope."
"Because as long as nothing happens to me in the game, then the real me won't be affected."
"I'm in the game... and I need to change my strategy."
"Foundation Establishment. As long as I complete the Heavenly Dao Foundation Establishment and ensure I can protect myself from the Golden Elixir Stage cultivators, I have to venture out of the Qingyun Sect more often to gain experience faster and look for clues about the world-destroying catastrophe."
"Only by knowing enough can I better cope with it and survive the catastrophe as much as possible."
Upon realizing this, Su Chen took a deep breath and stopped thinking about the questions that made him feel cold all over.
A thousand years is long, but a thousand years is also short.
Because the game lasts ten years, and reality lasts one year.
Although he has a thousand years in the game, it equates to only a short hundred years in reality.
While he currently faces no danger in reality, if something happened to him in the game, it would also jeopardize him in reality.
So the time left for him... is not that much.
"No matter what, within one year in reality and ten years in the game, I must complete the Heavenly Dao Foundation Establishment. I can't delay any longer."
"Time... waits for no one."
Su Chen didn't anticipate that he would come to the dungeon intending to gain some experience only to inadvertently uncover some shocking secrets.
This caused his mood to shift suddenly from relaxed to extremely heavy.
Sometimes, knowing too much is not necessarily a good thing...
After setting those chaotic thoughts aside, Su Chen walked directly into the depths of the dungeon.
The secrets of the blue sky and the catastrophe of heaven and earth felt too distant for him now.
He must first seize the opportunity to block and improve his strength as much as possible.
What he needed to do most right now was undoubtedly to clear the dungeon in front of him.
Deep in the mine, after Su Chen walked out of the long and narrow tunnel, he finally arrived at a vast underground space.
In that space, an extremely huge iron chain was deeply embedded in the ceiling, seemingly connecting to something.
Surrounding the iron chain, a large number of various cauldrons were arranged in a special formation.
At the outermost edge were the largest number of Black Iron Cauldrons, numbering approximately one thousand.
The second largest group consisted of Bronze Cauldrons, of which there were about a hundred.
These were followed by Mithril Cauldrons, numbering about a dozen.
Finally, placed in the center was a Golden Cauldron.
However, the Golden Cauldron was already tilted by half at this time, appearing as if it would fall at any moment.
Next to the Golden Cauldron, a thin mummy was propping it up, trying its hardest to maintain the delicate balance.
Su Chen looked at the mummy and keenly noticed something was off.
The mummy's hands had mostly rotted away from the pressure exerted by the fallen Golden Cauldron, and flesh and blood had worn off from its knees on the ground, revealing white bones.
Although Su Chen didn't know how long the mummy had maintained this posture of carrying the cauldron, he sensed that the mummy was nearing its limit.
A substantial amount of twisted flesh and blood had already condensed inside the Golden Cauldron, and many tumors had also grown around it.
It appeared that it was about to transform into a Cauldron Man.
The Black Iron Cauldron Man is at the third level of the Qi Gathering Stage, and the Bronze Cauldron Man is at the sixth level of the Qi Gathering Stage.
Though Su Chen had never seen the Mithril Cauldron People for some reason, he thought they were either at the ninth level of the Qi Gathering Stage or at the Foundation Establishment Stage.
If this Golden Cauldron were to fully transform into a Cauldron Man, Su Chen conservatively estimated it would be at the Foundation Establishment Stage at worst, or it might even be able to reach a level comparable to the Golden Elixir Stage.
Thinking of this, Su Chen immediately took out the Black Dragon Sword and walked toward the Golden Cauldron.
If he allowed the Golden Cauldron to completely transform into a Golden Cauldron Man, then even with a heretic path sword, he would probably find it difficult to hurt it at all.
The power of the Golden Elixir is exceedingly strong.
As Su Chen approached the Mithril Cauldron area, the mummy that had been silent all this time slowly spoke.
"Get out..."
These words seemed to consume a lot of energy from the mummy, causing its body to visibly sag under the weight of the Golden Cauldron, which increased the twisted flesh and blood within the cauldron, accelerating the transformation process into a Cauldron Man.
Su Chen silently observed the mummy, as information about it appeared in front of him.
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[Pang Xiao (Golden Cauldron Man/Foundation Establishment Stage Magic Corpse)]
[Cultivation: Ninth Level of Foundation Establishment Stage]
[Description: A true disciple of Kangding Peak, proficient in physical skills and some mountain-moving skills, extremely dangerous.]
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(End of this chapter)