Volume 16 Chapter 29: Greater Truth

"Everything you have done was because you felt like you didn't have my talent, felt like it was unfair, that you suffered so much in Purgatory Mountain. However, have you ever considered just how much suffering I went through during all those battles? How could you be so certain that my cultivation came so easily?"

Lin Xi looked at Zhang Ping, saying bitterly, "Whether or not you went to Great Mang, whether you cultivated Devil Transformation or not, all of this so called unfairness was through your own choices. Yunqin raised you, Green Luan Academy guided you, allowed you to become a cultivator... Just think for a moment, all of those battles we fought before, everything we did before, what was it all for? Many times, we didn't even have any choice. We had to fight for our friends, for the people we care about, but you? You destroyed Thunder Academy, but was it all to see if I can still smile after losing my wife?"

"Tell me, when I am facing a friend like you, can I still smile?!" Lin Xi revealed a miserable smile. "Do not forget that Gao Yanan isn't only my wife, she is also your schoolmate, your friend, someone who you have fought together with. Also, Jiang Xiaoyi and the others, as well as Teacher Xu Shengmo and the other teachers. You've received all of this friendship and gratitude, only to trample it beneath your feet. You've already done something like this, yet you've even told me you've done even more! Even that Yunqin female spy who died under your hands wished for you to live well, yet look at you, look what you've become!"

"Don't criticize me. You can never truly go through what I've gone through, no one can be certain if you would become like me if our lives were swapped. Moreover, I never felt that what I've become is bad. The feeling of only fighting for myself feels excellent." When Zhang Ping saw Lin Xi's extremely bitter smile, he felt a bit better. "While I still have interest in telling you about some things you don't know about yet, you only need to tell me if you still want to continue to listen. There is no need for you to spout any more meaningless nonsense."

"Let alone the fact that speaking more nonsense won't bring back Gao Yanan, Jiang Xiaoyi and the others." Zhang Ping looked at Lin Xi while carrying an even greater mysterious joy, adding with a bit of mockery and maliciousness.

Nangong Weiyang's brows locked tightly together.

People who understood would know that her unhappiness already reached the peak. She was already unable to hold herself back from attacking.

However, Lin Xi instead shook his head towards her, stopping her. "I want to hear what else he has done."

Zhang Ping calmly gave Nangong Weiyang a look. However, his cold gaze landed on Lin Xi's body again. "Have you ever wondered to yourself why even though I wanted to deal with you, I still passed on the even more powerful Devil Transformation, the 'Demonization' cultivation method?"

Lin Xi looked at him, not saying anything.

"This wasn't for the sake of obtaining your trust." Zhang Ping looked at Lin Xi and said with a calm voice. "This action carried much of my intentions, many arrangements."

Qin Xiyue's entire body even began to continuously tremble. Right now, she wanted to tell Zhang Ping to shut up, but she also wanted to hear just what Zhang Ping did.

She obtained a certain powerful soul rippling soul weapon from Green Luan Academy, moreover, she also obtained Nightingale's Sound Rippling Technique. She was someone who felt like every voice carried their respective rhythm, she enjoyed quietly listening to various sounds. However, for the first time, she began to hate Zhang Ping's voice.

"This Demonization is the most simple, as well as the most powerful cultivation method. The most crucial part is in its ability to consume vital energy after killing." Zhang Ping said calmly. "However, passively killing and taking the initiative to kill are completely different. One of the most important reasons why I passed Demonization to you, was because I wanted to see if, after you broke through the Sacred Expert level, after killing so many people to consume vital energy, you would become infatuated with this type of feeling. I wanted to see whether once you met another cultivator, you would want to kill him to devour his vital energy. At that time, all people in your eyes, would no longer be any friends or loved ones, but rather living pill medicines, nourishment for you to raise your strength. Only, what I didn't expect was that you actually had a Sea Fiend King, that you actually didn't kill anyone before entering Central Continent City, and then broke through to the sacred level."

This was an extremely hidden and vile way of thinking. Hua Jiyue's hands and feet even felt ice-cold, as if they were soaked in ice water.

"When you look at other cultivators, this is what you see them as?" Lin Xi looked at Zhang Ping, his tone also starting to become ice-cold. "You've always felt that your talent was more powerful than mine. Could it be that you aren't worried that after I cultivate Demonization, my cultivation will always be greater than yours?"

"This perfectly segways into the second reason why I passed on Demonization to you. Your future cultivation will never be greater than mine." Zhang Ping looked into Lin Xi's eyes, to the extent where he even carried a bit of pity for Lin Xi's expression. "Regarding the conflict between immortals and devils in the ancient world of cultivation, not even Green Luan Academy has any concrete documents. This means that even though Green Luan Academy might have obtained some of the Green Luan Palace cultivation land's inheritance behind Heaven Ascension Mountain Rage[1], when I obtained the true Sky Devil Palace inheritance from Sky Devil Prison Plains, I saw the real records. That is why I am the only cultivator in this world who truly knows about the battles between the ancient cultivator immortals and devils."

Nangong Weiyang's brows jumped fiercely. Her thoughts were always simple and direct. After confirming that Zhang Ping was the main culprit, the only thing in her mind was to kill Zhang Ping. She would think about what came after later.

However, right now, she instead began to seriously listen to Zhang Ping's words.

The destruction and rebirth of the ancient world of cultivators always had countless circulating stories, but no one knew which were true. The only thing that was certain was that the research and understanding regarding soul force and runes were far greater in the ancient world of cultivation than the present. Everyone in the present world acknowledged that the cultivators of the ancient cultivator world were all far more powerful than the cultivators of the modern world.

"A will achieves immortality, a will achieves demonization. In the already extinct ancient world of cultivators, these were two different cultivation concepts." Zhang Ping noticed the changes in Nangong Weiyang's expression. When facing this age's publicly acknowledged most powerful female Sacred Expert, he mysteriously felt a bit of joy. "To put it simply, this world previously had two different powerful cultivation methods. One type was to transfer the natural vital energy of the world, while the other is to endlessly temper the body, allowing more power to exist in the body."

"The research of cultivation methods and runes is an extremely long process. That is why these two methods had existed for a long time. The cultivators back then would decide on a path, and then they would head down that path."

"However, as their understanding regarding natural vital energy and their own strength grew deeper and deeper, these two cultivation methods slowly reached a limit."

"Finally, at the pinnacle of the world of cultivators, the cultivators who transferred the world's vital energy while fighting were called immortals. Their powerful individuals could use their bodies as an intermediary, able to take in and send out natural vital energy in an unending stream, and then erupt with greater power." Zhang Ping looked into Nangong Weiyang's eyes with a bit of mockery, continuing, "You can imagine it as a cultivator's body having countless holes in their body while fighting. Endless natural vital energy would enter the body, and then be outputted through the hands or soul weapons, to the extent where it becomes an endless supply, equivalent to forever possessing exceptionally powerful soul force transferring. Just what kind of scene is this, just how powerful would this make them?"

Nangong Weiyang's eyes narrowed slightly. Zhang Ping's expression naturally left her unhappy, but the scene Zhang Ping portrayed, those types of cultivators indeed left her shocked.

"The other is Demonization?" That was why she seriously asked without any emotion. "What kind of cultivation is this?"

"Those who pursue the path of the devils have bodies that are the sturdiest things in existence, nearly impossible to destroy. Moreover, they can use methods like Demonization to continuously devour the vital energy of enemy cultivators, transform it into their own power." A hint of a strange smile appeared on the corners of Zhang Ping's lips. "Can you imagine that on a battlefield with many cultivators, if these devil cultivators continuously killed enemy cultivators, continuously increased their own strength, just what kind of scene that is? Moreover, whenever you kill an enemy cultivator, you will obtain powerful strength, to the extent where the strength would also receive explosive growth. From a certain perspective, if the battles do not end, the vital energies of devil cultivators will never be exhausted."

Nangong Weiyang took a deep breath. Her eyes flickered slightly as she said, "That is why at the very pinnacle of the world of cultivators, a great battle ultimately erupted between the cultivators who walked these two different paths?"

"If we were to split the entire world of cultivation in halves, the cultivators who ultimately walked the so-called path of immortal dao, able to transfer the world's vital energies to fight occupied the north. Meanwhile, the cultivators who chose devil cultivation occupied the south, precisely the sects that established themselves in Sky Devil Prison Plains." Zhang Ping nodded and said, "Devil cultivators naturally had to rely on killing immortal cultivators to acquire vital energy, but immortal cultivators obviously wouldn't want to be killed. This type of clash reached the very peak. Countless cultivators died, the countries that relied on these cultivators were destroyed. This world of cultivation that reached the very peak thus began to die. In the end, it was instead those small tribes that didn't have cultivators, those ordinary mortals who didn't even know what was going on outside who multiplied and survived, becoming the rulers of this world."

"In the end, no one won this final great battle?" Lin Xi finally spoke. He looked at Zhang Ping and said, "Or is it to say that the cultivators who cultivated devil dao still lost in the end? Otherwise, all of those cultivation lands in Sky Devil Prison Plains wouldn't have all vanished, becoming remains."

"Perhaps we can interpret it this way. I also understand what you are trying to say. You are saying that even if the past devil cultivators were that powerful, they were still defeated. It is just like me, no matter how powerful I am, I will still be defeated." Zhang Ping looked at Lin Xi and calmly said, "During the war, devil cultivators seized the advantage for a long time, because devouring will naturally be much faster than slowly accumulating power. Devil cultivators have a natural advantage in their bodies. However, in the end, as the number of immortal dao cultivators became fewer and fewer, the devil cultivators couldn't obtain enough vital energy supplementation, so they were instead at a disadvantage. That was why later on, there were instead conflicts between the devil cultivators themselves."

"Only, this type of history won't repeat itself." Zhang Ping looked at Lin Xi and continued. "Because the only ones who can truly cultivate devil dao are just the two of us."

Nangong Weiyang's brows furrowed slightly again.

Zhang Ping gave her a look and calmly said, "Even though I told him some of the cultivation methods, there is no way he would have those nasty worms as food to eat and cultivate with. Even though those worms are nauseating, they are essential supplements for furthering the cultivation of Devil Transformation. That is why his body will never be more powerful than mine. With each step he takes each day, I will take ten steps."

"For devil cultivators, their bodies are the most important vessels. Even if they innately possess soul force density exceeding an ordinary person's, the bodies of devil cultivators, apart from being able to contain powerful soul force, the most important thing is still their devouring speed."

"An even more powerful body can endure more powerful absorption. The amount of time it will take to digest a cultivator's vital energy will become even shorter."

"Apart from these things, there is an issue that is even more important than everything I spoke about previously." Zhang Ping's voice became even more joyful. "Green Luan's lineage was previously the most important power for cultivating immortal dao, producing many powerful Immortal Transformation cultivators. However, the two cultivation methods are incompatible. Cultivators whose bodies have been previously modified by devil medicine and cultivated the true Devil Transformation cannot cultivate Immortal Transformation."

"That is why even if that type of powerful Immortal Transformation still exists, able to endlessly transfer the vital energy of the word, fight limitlessly... even if Lin Xi could still obtain that type of cultivation method, he cannot cultivate it."

Zhang Ping suddenly roared with laughter, his laughter echoing through this spacious underground palace. "That is why he is already destined to become a devil, moreover the weakest devil in this world of devils. He will forever be beneath me, always look up to a devil like me... the most powerful devil."

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