Chapter 142: Sword Rain and Falling Petals

The spiritual essence and the original body shared a natural, intuitive harmony, allowing Feng Ke'er to master the Thousand-Hand technique with almost no effort.

Initially, the thousand-handed spirit form held artifacts in the right hand and formed mudras with the left—she had never imagined in her wildest dreams that she would one day "evolve" into such a state, so she had certainly not prepared five hundred nascent soul incarnations to be left-handed.

Consequently, it looked as though they all had matching hands on the same side. Furthermore, for the five hundred arms on the left, the right arm had to reach across, making the five hundred arms on the left look significantly shorter than those on the right. As someone who was a connoisseur of aesthetics, she found this ruined a perfectly cool look. It was not good; it was very not good.

Moreover, from a tactical standpoint, reaching the right arm across to the left side was not a scientific approach. Thus, Feng Ke'er spent some time re-training the five hundred spiritual incarnations to be left-handed.

She also experimented with having all thousand hands perform the same skill simultaneously. The first test was the Ten Thousand Needles Technique. Previously, she could only attack in one direction, but with a thousand hands, she could theoretically scatter ice needles across three hundred and sixty degrees, increasing her combat power by many times.

However, after just one attempt, she found that it had nearly exhausted all the ice spiritual energy within her. She was so drained she almost collapsed. Having a thousand hands use the Ten Thousand Needles Technique at once was equivalent to performing the technique a thousand times in a row. Since every needle was condensed from her internal ice spiritual energy, even though her reserves had increased millions of times compared to when she first created the technique, they were still finite and could not withstand such extravagance.

Spiritual energy is the source of spiritual power. In combat, rapid depletion of spiritual energy significantly slows the recovery of spiritual power. Thus, while a three-hundred-and-sixty-degree barrage of needles was as cool as a torrential downpour and devastatingly lethal, it could not be used as a standard combat skill.

After much contemplation, Feng Ke'er had an epiphany—inspired by the peerless martial arts in novels, she realized she could use the moisture in the air instead of her internal ice energy. By using spiritual power to condense atmospheric water into needles before launching them, she could save her own energy.

Condensing moisture from the air was far easier than converting internal energy. With a minor "Freeze" spell, she could turn a ten-mile radius into an icy world. For the Ten Thousand Needles Technique, she only needed to freeze the moisture within three meters of her body, consuming negligible spiritual power.

Feng Ke'er immediately tested this improved version. "Ten Thousand Needles!" both the original and the spirits called out in unison. It sounded like a thousand-person multi-part choir, a grand and overlapping resonance. In an instant, a dazzling white sphere of light erupted from her center.

"凝 (Condense)!" The thousand hands formed a mudra in unison. Within three meters, a misty frost formed.

"去 (Go)!" The thousand hands opened and pushed outward in all directions simultaneously.

In a split second, the sound of air being pierced was constant. A sky full of ice needles obscured her figure. Feng Ke'er gauged the distance; the needles traveled up to twenty yards! And it cost almost nothing in terms of spiritual energy or power. This meant that as long as there was a water source nearby, she could use this improved technique continuously.

If she used ice swords instead... Feng Ke'er shivered with excitement, exited the spatial sphere, and went to the bathroom in the Mustard Seed Space. There was a hot spring there, perfect for an experiment. She first used her large grasping hands to draw up the spring water. The water rose like a dragon, surrounding her completely.

"Condense!" The thousand hands formed a mudra, turning the water dragon into an ice dragon.

"Go!" The ice dragon shattered into countless three-foot-long ice swords, flying out with the speed of lightning.

With a series of sharp impacts, ice chips flew everywhere. The screens and furniture in the Mustard Seed Space (which were real objects collected by the Demon King, not illusions) were turned to dust in the blink of an eye. The destructive power was simply top-tier.

Feng Ke'er looked at the room, now a world of ice shards, feeling very proud. The "Ten Thousand Swords Technique" was even more powerful than the "Ten Thousand Needles Technique" and consumed little energy, provided there was water nearby. She gave this improved skill a poetic name: "Sword Rain, Flying Blossoms." She then proceeded to adapt many of her other skills, such as the Great Handprint, into "thousand-handed" versions. Naturally, defensive skills like the Wall of Flames or the Ice Armor were too energy-intensive, so she did not force improvements upon them.

After finishing, Feng Ke'er calculated the time and realized half a year had passed outside. "Oh no!" she exclaimed, rushing out of the Mustard Seed Space—Hu San had only completed one course of treatment and was waiting for her to act as his guardian for the remaining three.

"Congratulations, Master, on your successful breakthrough!" Seeing that Feng Ke'er had reached the first level of the Ascension stage, the Demon King bowed with a beaming smile.

Feng Ke'er had already decided to form a contract with him, so she allowed him to call her "Master." Scanning his sea of consciousness, she asked in surprise, "Hu San, your inner demon..." The sea of consciousness was now nothing but a vast expanse of white clouds; the inner demon was nowhere to be found.

The Demon King followed her gaze and looked inward, equally astonished. "Master, can you see into my sea of consciousness?" Usually, one could only look into another's consciousness if their cultivation was equal to or higher than the other's. Otherwise, the intruder's spiritual sense would face a ruthless backlash. His cultivation was at the sixth-stage perfection, equivalent to the peak of the human Ascension stage, nine levels higher than hers. Yet, she had peered into his mind so casually, and he hadn't even sensed it, let alone been able to launch a "ruthless backlash."

How could this be? Was her true cultivation far beyond the Ascension stage? Did she possess a celestial artifact to hide it? The Demon King’s eyes were filled with inquiry. His thoughts were clearly reflected in the clouds of his consciousness.

Feng Ke'er shook her head and chuckled, "I don't know how it works; I've always been able to peer into the consciousness of seniors with cultivation far higher than mine." It was true that she had concealment talismans, but she had left the Phoenix Jade plaque in the spatial sphere before coming out. Although her cultivation had improved, she knew there was always someone stronger. The Goddess Nüwa and her sixty thousand ghost soldiers had kept her humble. High-profile cultivation, low-profile living—the art of playing the pig to eat the tiger would never go out of style.

The Demon King's surprise deepened. In his thirty thousand years of life, he had never heard of such a thing.

Feng Ke'er rubbed her nose. "It must be a talent." Apparently, that fox had a talent for mind-reading, too.

The Demon King suddenly realized, smiling without a word, his heart blooming with joy: as expected, he and his Master were of the same kind, even their talents were similar.

"By the way, what about your inner demon? Has it been completely eradicated?" Feng Ke'er returned to the topic of the Demon-Subduing Pill's efficacy.

The Demon King nodded, his face filled with unconcealable joy and gratitude. "The Demon-Subduing Pill you granted was incredibly effective. After the third dose, the inner demon vanished. Following your instructions, I took the fourth dose two days ago. It is completely gone." Words could not express his gratitude; he swore to follow her through heaven and earth for the rest of his life.

Seeing that he no longer obsessively mentioned being her "life-bound guardian beast" and that his inner thoughts showed no resistance to being a "servant beast," Feng Ke'er asked in surprise, "You no longer want to be my life-bound guardian beast?"

"Master, that was just my own arrogance," the Demon King replied softly, eyes downcast, his hands clenched into fists within his sleeves. He had thought it through: he was merely a lowly demon beast. His Master had a celestial grace and a great destiny ahead; why would she choose a demon beast to be her life-bound guardian? Moreover, he owed her his life. If he insisted, she might agree out of kindness, but he would only hold her back. Their Silver Fox clan always repaid kindness; he could not be so shameless. He had resolved to face the Ascension tribulation himself. As long as she didn't mind his lowly bloodline and allowed him to stay by her side, he was content even as a servant beast.

Feng Ke'er felt a pang of sadness. Standing before her was a Demon King who had commanded the seas for tens of thousands of years, yet he felt such inferiority due to the bloodline prejudices ingrained in the cultivation world. She felt a deep sense of kinship.

"I have never looked down on demon beasts," she said. In her modern life, she hadn't believed in destiny or status, and she certainly didn't believe in it now.

The Demon King looked up at her, overjoyed.

"For the past hundred years, you have helped guard me, allowing me to focus on my cultivation. And because you gave me the Mustard Seed Space, my cultivation progressed rapidly. You have been a great benefactor to me," Feng Ke'er said sincerely. "To leave kindness unreturned would create an inner demon. So, I came out of seclusion to help you face those three tribulation lightning strikes." Most importantly, she needed to learn how to trust others. The history of Pangu taught her that while one should not be obsessed, one must have heart. This was perhaps the true meaning of "The Great Way is heartless."

He had agreed! The Demon King stood frozen in shock.