Chapter 111: Cutting Corners Is Never Right

The Great Shift of the Universe technique has three layers of cultivation methods. This time, the Lord of the All-Heaven Sect, breaking from his usual practice, passed all of them entirely to Feng Ke’er.

However, the old man still “did it for her own good.” According to him, fearing Feng Ke’er’s impatience for quick success, he encrypted the teachings. With her current cultivation, she could only decrypt the first layer. Only when her strength reached a certain level in the future would she be able to unlock the remaining two layers.

Upon receiving the manual, Feng Ke’er indeed noticed this set differed from the previous ones: the golden characters were all shrouded in seals, blurred and indecipherable no matter how she focused her divine sense.

So this was the encryption method. Even with the situation urgent, the old man still had the heart to play with decryption! Feng Ke’er inwardly scolded but dared not lose focus. She held her breath, gathered her spirit, pressed a finger to her forehead, and released her divine sense to examine the seals.

Fortunately, although far more difficult than the tenth-level seal in the Heart of the Sea, it was still no match for her.

Her hands moved swiftly, each forming a hand seal. Suddenly, she opened her eyes and shouted: “Netherfire!”

At once, ten small purple fireballs shot from her fingertips—any cultivator at the Condensation Core stage or above possessed what was called the fire of the dantian. Generally, the dantian fire varied slightly depending on one’s innate root. For cultivators with a single spiritual root, the dantian fire was the purest; for those with five roots, it was the most stable. Among single-root cultivators, those with the fire spiritual root had the finest dantian fire. However, the innate talent only accounted for about a tenth of the fire’s strength—the main factor was the amount of spiritual energy within the dantian sea.

Logically, someone like Feng Ke’er, with a wood spiritual root and a pseudo-ice spiritual root by chance, would have the weakest dantian fire. But she had a thousand golden cores, and her spiritual energy compared to peers was like an ocean. Thus, her dantian fire was truly exceptional.

First, the color was different. Most cultivators’ dantian fires were red, varying in shade depending on strength. Even the weakest, those with ice spiritual roots, had fiery red outer flames, orange-red inner flames, and pink flame hearts. But Feng Ke’er’s dantian fire was purple! Well, not pure purple—it was layered: bright purple outer flames, purplish-red inner flames, and a golden flame heart. It looked, if anything, coldly elegant and noble; if one were less poetic, it resembled eerie ghost flames—strange, indeed. But Feng Ke’er didn’t mind. Who said fire had to be red? Pure alcohol burns with a pale blue flame!

Second, the temperature was different. Although the dantian fire was still fire—not as formidable as the Phoenix Clan’s Three Flavor True Fire that could melt anything—it was scorching. The higher the cultivator’s level, the more stable and hot the fire. Yet Feng Ke’er’s dantian fire was cold. The higher her cultivation, the colder the flames.

For these reasons, Feng Ke’er mockingly named her dantian fire “Netherfire,” a name that sent chills down one’s spine.

Well, in this era, the name was a bit too far-sighted—according to her three centuries of experience, the ghostly Netherworld had not yet emerged.

Though the name and flame were cold, it did not diminish its effectiveness. Her Netherfire could boil water, cook meals, roast chickens and ducks… Because her spiritual energy was abundant, and her golden cores plentiful, the Netherfire was quite powerful. It could easily melt anything below the rank of a superior spiritual artifact.

The first layer of the Great Shift of the Universe technique was sealed by ten interlocking iron rings formed from spiritual energy.

With time pressing, Feng Ke’er had no patience for tedious decryption. She simply burned them away.

Sizzling, the ten fireballs, like ten little purple fire serpents, coiled around the iron rings. Wherever they touched, the iron melted into molten metal, then dissolved into strands of white spiritual energy.

Wasting was shameful. Moreover, these came from the Lord of the All-Heaven Sect, imbued with immortal energy. Feng Ke’er casually absorbed all the spiritual energy for herself.

From the Phoenix Jade Talisman came the Lord’s chuckle: “You stubborn girl, can’t you spare some thought and just calmly dispel the seals? Burning them all away is such a waste!”

Learning to set seals began with learning to dispel them. Feng Ke’er wasn’t ignorant of this principle. She answered while working: “Don’t worry, I’ve memorized it all. There’s no time to waste!” With a thousand golden cores, she had set aside a hundred specifically for studying seals. After the first glance, she had already committed the shape and traits of the seals to memory. That hundred cores were busy deciphering away.

In moments, all ten spiritual rings melted.

The seals were broken!

The golden characters became crystal clear.

Outside, the eldest of the Hua family was the first to open his eyes, performing a technique as he rejoiced: “Found it!” He had located Feng Ke’er’s spatial pocket.

Feng Ke’er felt a sharp sting in her eyes as the four walls of her space suddenly turned transparent. Vast beams of sunlight poured in, blinding her.

“Combine divine senses!”

The three Hua brothers stood in a row before the floating spatial projection, merging their divine senses into a single thread, forming a sharp golden diamond drill.

The space Feng Ke’er had created was condensed from pure ice, fire, and earth spiritual energy. Wrapped in layers of seals, what the Hua brothers saw was merely a misty, magnified, gigantic sphere of ice and snow. They could not yet peer inside.

“Drill!” the eldest commanded again.

Sparks flew as the golden diamond drill stood atop the ice ball, drilling with a “crackling” sound. Their patience was limited; they forced the seal’s dissolution.

Not good—the space formed from the seals and spiritual energy could withstand only about fifteen minutes under such pressure!

Feng Ke’er took a deep breath, calming her pounding heart. She sat cross-legged and focused.

At this moment, panic was useless; losing composure was worse.

She possessed a thousand golden cores and a learning ability hundreds of times greater than cultivators of her stage. Fifteen minutes was enough time to study and grasp a cultivation method thoroughly.

The Hua brothers were astonished: spatial techniques consumed immense spiritual energy. A Condensation Core stage girl wielding such a technique was already impressive. Yet this space was far sturdier than expected. Without their combined strength, it would take a day or more to break it. Even more surprising was the lack of panic from within—the spiritual energy fluctuations showed calmness.

If only she were a scion of the Hua family—the talent even surpassed the clan leader. The brothers exchanged grim looks: they could not allow a prodigy to rise from the Feng clan.

They intensified their spiritual energy. The golden diamond drill spun wildly.

Inside, Feng Ke’er’s thousand golden cores rotated smoothly. She had memorized the incantations and was now simulating practice. Thanks to a previous accidental discovery of a training method, otherwise, even with the manual, she could not have immediately turned it into combat power—it would have been useless.

“Pop! Pop! Pop!” Amidst a shower of sparks, the seals broke!

A thunderous crash followed—the top of the space collapsed.

If before the space was a gigantic ice ball, now it resembled a giant cracked glass jar.

Inside the jar, the scene was fully visible.

At that instant, Feng Ke’er sprang up, pressed her index fingers to her forehead, and shouted, “Shift!”

The first layer of the Great Shift of the Universe technique teleports the caster themselves. Simply put, it was the instantaneous shift she had long desired. With her current strength, she could teleport up to twenty miles away, ten times; the directions were random.

Why random? It wasn’t a flaw in the technique but due to limited time—she had only skimmed the incantations.

The Lord of the All-Heaven Sect was a meticulous teacher. When sensing something amiss, he had warned her immediately.

But her reply was: “Right now, wherever I escape to doesn’t matter, just get away quickly!”

The Lord fell silent again.

At present, Feng Ke’er’s approach seemed correct. The moment the space was breached, she instantly shifted twenty miles away.

Therefore, the Hua brothers saw the giant broken glass jar tremble briefly before vanishing.

“Where is she?” the youngest squinted in disbelief, brow furrowed like a dark knot. How was this girl so slippery? Even more elusive than that Feng San!

The second brother peered carefully and snorted: “Teleportation!”

The eldest gritted his teeth: “Search again!”

They were renowned hunters of the divine realm. After three breaths, they found her.

They watched Feng Ke’er darting about like a headless fly, teleporting three times in a flash. The three brothers were both irritated and amused. Irritated that a Condensation Core cultivator could teleport—a technique usually reserved for Tribulation stage or above. Amused that this girl seemed drunk or mad, escaping so erratically.

“Chase!” the eldest waved, and the three teleported after her.

Seeing her pursuers, Feng Ke’er was truly distressed. Had she known it would come to this, she would never have cut corners.

Heavens and earth, she only had ten teleportation chances!

She had thought ten would be enough to escape, but fate was cruel—each of the three behind her was a teleportation master. Initially, they pursued closely, teleporting after her. But after five times, they tacitly began to encircle her.

On the ninth teleport, she nearly collided head-on with the youngest Hua brother.

“Shift!” Luckily, her reflexes were lightning-fast. Before her heel even planted firmly, she used her last teleport.

The next second, her feet landed solidly, but she hadn’t even opened her eyes before suddenly, water filled her nose, mouth, and ears.

Dizzy—she had teleported into water!

Instinctively, she slapped the water and wiped her face.

Suddenly, an enlarged man’s face appeared before her, his breath hot and fragrant: “Huh, who are you?”

(To be continued)

Great Shift of the Universe, Chapter 111: Cutting Corners Is Wrong—Update Complete!