SFS Chapter 21 Transformation
Chapter 21 Transformation
At dawn that day, Zhao Chen landed on a giant rock that was a hundred feet in diameter and scanned his surroundings with his senses. Within a radius of ten thousand feet, there was no sign of life.
"This is it."
Zhao Chen sat down cross-legged, preparing to break through to the Golden Core realm.
---
Time passed day by day.
At first, the 999 drops of true essence liquid within his dantian began to stir restlessly. A month later, the number of drops began to decrease, each drop becoming increasingly solid. Nine hundred drops, eight hundred drops, seven hundred drops…
Two months later, only nine drops remained.
Nine golden drops of true essence floated in the dantian, each drop containing power ten times stronger than the previous one. They attracted each other, circled around each other, and showed a faint tendency to merge into a pill.
But at that very moment, Zhao Chen suddenly felt a strange sensation.
That's not a sign of breaking through to the Golden Core stage.
Instead, it came from another kind of calling—from the Dao, from the depths of his bloodline. Was this feeling a manifestation? Zhao Chen was stunned.
Transformation is a crucial step for demonic beasts embarking on the path of cultivation. Logically, one can transform at the Golden Core stage, but he had always thought it was merely a simple change in appearance. However, the sensation transmitted by the Dao now told him that true transformation is far more than that.
That requires overcoming a heavenly tribulation.
A tribulation of transformation, unique to him, is required for him to successfully transform and break through to the Golden Core stage.
---
Zhao Chen looked up at the sky.
Golden clouds began to gather on the originally dark sky. These clouds surged in from all directions, growing thicker and denser until they finally transformed into a boundless golden sun cloud that covered millions of feet of sky.
Golden light illuminated the sky, turning everything around it golden.
Zhao Chen's pupils contracted sharply. Was this the Heavenly Tribulation of Transformation?
He recalled fragments of memories from his bloodline inheritance—a creature of extraordinary origin, whose heavenly tribulation would inevitably be earth-shattering. Others might face one layer of lightning, but they would face nine; others might fear heavenly tribulations, but they would devour them to refine their bodies.
Now, it's finally Zhao Chen's turn.
He has no way out now.
Either survive this tribulation, be reborn, and formally embark on the path of cultivation; or your soul will be scattered and you will become a wisp of dust in this dead star.
Zhao Chen stood up and roared to the sky.
"bring it on!"
---
The tribulation clouds surged, and the first lightning tribulation descended.
It was a golden bolt of lightning, as thick as a giant python, carrying a world-destroying force, striking straight at his head. Wherever the lightning passed, the void trembled, leaving behind black spatial rifts.
The great sun thunder.
Zhao Chen did not dodge.
He activated the Xuan Yang True Fire within his body and charged forward head-on!
"boom--!"
Thunder and flames collided, unleashing a blinding light. Zhao Chen felt a jolt of numbness throughout his body, losing sensation in half of it. But he gritted his teeth and endured the blow.
The lightning entered his body, tearing his flesh, bones, and fascia apart. But at the same time, the Profound Yang True Fire was also frantically refining this lightning power, transforming it into energy for body tempering.
Zhao Chen's physical body grew stronger at a visible speed amidst destruction and rebirth.
After the first lightning tribulation, his body was charred black, but the light in his eyes shone even brighter.
The second, the third, the fourth...
Each one is stronger and more ferocious than the last.
He was repeatedly struck and his skin was torn open, but each time he forcibly healed himself with the Xuan Yang True Fire. Under the tempering of the lightning, his body became more resilient and stronger.
When the seventh lightning tribulation descended, the Xuan Yang True Fire on Zhao Chen's body had already burned to its limit, transforming into a pillar of fire that soared into the sky, directly clashing with the lightning.
The eighth lightning tribulation shattered the pillar of fire, and Zhao Chen knelt on the mountaintop, coughing up blood.
The ninth lightning tribulation is the last and also the strongest.
A bolt of purplish-gold lightning, like a giant dragon, swooped down from the tribulation clouds. Wherever it passed, the void shattered, and countless spatial rifts intertwined to form a web of death.
Zhao Chen raised his head and looked at the bolt of lightning.
There was no fear in his eyes, only a frenzied fighting spirit.
He opened his mouth and swallowed the bolt of lightning whole!
"boom--!"
Golden light erupted from his body, illuminating the entire sky. Zhao Chen's body began to tremble violently, blood flowing from his seven orifices, but he gritted his teeth and frantically refined the lightning within his body with the Profound Yang True Fire.
At this moment, he truly achieved the body refinement through the Heavenly Tribulation.
After an unknown amount of time, the light faded.
Zhao Chen was covered in blood and panting heavily.
He is still alive.
The tribulation of lightning has passed.
---
However, the tribulation was not over.
The calamity clouds surged again, and the second wave of attacks descended.
This time it's fire.
Golden solar fire surged in from all directions, completely surrounding Zhao Chen. This was not the gentle flame within him, but true, pure solar fire, powerful enough to incinerate everything—though far inferior to the legendary true solar fire, it was already the core power of the Golden Crow bloodline.
Heavenly Fire Calamity.
Zhao Chen was engulfed by flames.
That pain was a thousand times more intense than the lightning tribulation. The lightning tribulation was a chop, a tearing; the heavenly fire was a burning, a melting. His flesh and blood melted in the flames, and were reborn under the reshaping of the Profound Yang True Fire. Every inch of skin, every bone, every cell was experiencing the cycle of destruction and rebirth.
Zhao Chen gritted his teeth and remained silent.
He knew this was a gift from Heaven. The heavenly fire burning his body was helping him temper the impurities in his physical form and forge a true foundation.
Time seemed to drag on amidst the pain.
After an unknown amount of time, the heavenly fire finally dissipated.
Zhao Chen lay sprawled on the ground, a deep crater now visible beneath his feet. His entire body was charred black, not a single patch of skin unscathed. Yet, his aura was more than ten times stronger than before.
The Heavenly Fire Calamity has passed.
---
But the third wave of attacks is the most dangerous.
That was a tribulation caused by inner demons.
The heavenly fire had just dissipated, and Zhao Chen hadn't even had a chance to catch his breath when his consciousness went haywire, and he was pulled into a boundless illusion.
Open your eyes.
The sky was blood red.
Ten suns hung in the sky, their scorching rays baking the earth. Mountains cracked, rivers dried up, and countless lives were reduced to ashes amidst cries of agony.
Zhao Chen looked down at himself—golden feathers, three legs, and a body engulfed in flames.
He is the Golden Crow.
He was one of the ten.
"Run!"
A voice exploded in his ear. It was his brother's cry, filled with fear and despair.
Zhao Chen turned his head and saw a figure in the distance holding a giant bow, nocking an arrow. The figure stood tall and imposing, radiating a pressure that made his soul tremble.
Hou Yi.
"No--"
Zhao Chen flapped his wings desperately, trying to escape. But the arrow was too fast, so fast that it seemed to have pierced through countless dimensions of time and space.
"boom!"
A sun beside him suddenly exploded, its golden blood splattering across the sky. That was his brother, his brethren born from the same star as him.
"Run! Run!"
Zhao Chen fled frantically, flying desperately. Behind him, arrow after arrow shot, and sun after sun sank.
Nine arrows, nine suns.
He was the only one left.
Zhao Chen dared not look back, dared not stop, dared not hesitate for even a moment. He only wanted to escape, to escape as far away as possible, to escape to a place where Hou Yi could not find him.
I don't know how long we flew, or how far we flew.
Zhao Chen finally stopped.
fear.
Endless fear.
The fear of being targeted by a hunter, the fear of being shot through by an arrow at any moment, was deeply imprinted on Zhao Chen's soul.
He is the Golden Crow.
He was the prey again.
Zhao Chen curled up in a ball, trembling.
-
After an unknown amount of time, a voice resounded in his heart.
"What are you afraid of?"
Zhao Chen was stunned.
The voice was unfamiliar, yet it also seemed strangely familiar.
"You are the Golden Crow, you are the Lord of the Sun, why should you be afraid?"
Zhao Chen opened his mouth, wanting to answer, but found that he couldn't say anything.
"Why should I be afraid? I am the Tenth Prince of the Golden Crow, I was once..." He tried to recall, but found his mind blank.
Who is he?
He is the tenth prince of the Golden Crow.
What about before that? And before that?
And who is that?
Fragments of shattered memories begin to surface—the computer screen in the rented room, Angel Yan's arrogant face, Morgana's fallen freedom, the rocks and bones on the Death Star, the surprise of the first glimmer of moonlight...
Memories flooded back like a tide.
He is Zhao Chen.
He is not the Golden Crow.
At least, it's not the Golden Crow now.
Zhao Chen opened his eyes.
The illusion shattered like a mirror.
The tribulation of inner demons is over.
---
The heavenly tribulation has dissipated.
The clouds of calamity surged, and a golden light descended from the void, enveloping his entire body.
This is a blessing from Heaven.
The warm, gentle light nourished Zhao Chen's charred body. His flesh began to regenerate, his new skin as translucent as jade. His bones were being reshaped, each one stronger than before. His meridians were expanding, able to hold more true energy.
Zhao Chen could feel that his physique was undergoing a qualitative leap.
Within his dantian, it was already boiling like a vast ocean.
The spiritual energy surged through his meridians like a stampede of horses, causing his body to tremble slightly.
All the spiritual power, insights, and foundation of the Dao that had been accumulated before were now being drawn by an invisible force and frantically converged towards the deepest part of the dantian.
The liquid spiritual energy rotates, compresses, and tears, being tempered in the meridians and settling in the dantian.
At first, it was just a chaotic cloud of light and mist.
As the compression intensified, the mist gradually solidified, transforming into a drop of crystal-clear spiritual liquid.
The elixir shrank, condensed, and compressed again—
hum-
A soft sound exploded from the depths of the soul.
Within the dantian, the endlessly compressed spiritual energy suddenly solidified into a perfectly round, radiant, and heavy pill. That golden pill hovered in the very center of the dantian.
Its entire body is purple-gold in color, perfectly round and flawless, without the slightest imperfection. On the surface of the pill, nine dark golden divine patterns swirl and flow, like the imprint of the Heavenly Dao, like the runes of the Great Dao.
This is the legendary Nine-Turn Golden Elixir!
The moment the golden core was formed, Zhao Chen's aura stabilized instantly, and all the violent spiritual power was gathered together, no longer leaking out in the slightest.
The pill slowly rotated in the center of the dantian, emitting a warm yet domineering aura. With each rotation, extremely pure magical power was generated spontaneously.
Outside the body, spiritual light soared into the sky, and rays of light shone in countless directions.
The faint sounds of the Great Dao echoed between heaven and earth, as if celebrating a cultivator's true entry into the path of immortality.
All previous bottlenecks and constraints shattered the moment the Golden Core was formed.
Zhao Chen slowly opened his eyes, a flash of inspiration passing through them.
From today onwards,
He was no longer a rogue cultivator at the Qi Refining and Foundation Establishment stage.
He was not a true Golden Core cultivator.
As the light faded, Zhao Chen stood up and looked down at his hands.
Those were human hands.
His fingers were long and strong, with a faint gold tinge at the tips. He touched his face again; his features were well-defined, and his black hair was streaked with gold.
He succeeded.
---
At that very moment, a massive torrent of memories flooded into his mind.
This is the inheritance of bloodline—more complete than the last time.
He "saw" a gigantic sun rising from the chaos. A three-legged divine bird soared within the sun, its wingspan obscuring half the sky, each feather ablaze with golden flames.
Suddenly, a flood of information came in:
Fiery Eyes—his eyes could see through illusions, tricks, and concealments. The method was etched into his mind, but he knew it would take time and practice to truly master it.
Golden Crow Escape—an extremely fast escape technique that can travel ten thousand miles a day. The image of a golden crow traversing the starry sky flashed through his mind; a streak of golden light streaked across, covering ten thousand miles in an instant.
The cry of the golden crow—a cry that can shatter the primordial spirit and awe all living beings.
Even more complete techniques flooded into my mind.
【The True Explanation of the Great Sun Golden Crow: From the Transformation of the Spirit to the Tribulation】
The complete cultivation method, from how to travel through the void during the Nascent Soul stage to how to deal with the tribulation lightning during the Tribulation Transcending stage. Although there were still some vague parts in his mind—it seemed that the cultivation methods for higher realms were sealed—the cultivation methods from the Golden Core stage to the Tribulation Transcending stage were enough for him to cultivate for a long time.
Immediately following, another fragment of memory exploded—
That was the scene of Hongjun Daozu preaching to three thousand guests in the chaos.
He "saw" a majestic jade platform suspended within the palace, upon which sat a Daoist, his body shrouded in chaotic energy, obscuring his face, yet emanating a transcendent Daoist aura. Three thousand innate gods and demons, and ancient great beings sat below the platform, completely absorbed.
He "saw" two figures dressed in golden-red embroidered robes, seated among them. Their features were handsome, their presence imposing and dignified, exuding an aura of royalty, as they listened intently to the sermon. As the Daoist teachings entered their ears, their forms shifted and transformed, sometimes into giants, sometimes into dragons, sometimes into mountains, sometimes into clouds…
The Seventy-Two Transformations of the Earthly Fiends.
This is a memory of the scene when the Taoist patriarch preached, and now, with the inheritance of bloodline, this memory is completely imprinted deep in his soul.
The following are a list of auspicious phrases related to magic, magic, and other magic: communicating with spirits, exorcising deities, carrying mountains, prohibiting water, borrowing wind, spreading fog, praying for clear skies, praying for rain, sitting by fire, entering water, concealing the sun, riding the wind, boiling stones, spitting flames, swallowing knives, creating a celestial pot, traveling by magic, walking on water, dissolving with a staff, splitting into two, becoming invisible, continuing a head, fixing the body, slaying demons, inviting immortals, chasing souls, capturing spirits, summoning clouds, taking the moon, transporting, marrying dreams, dismembering, entrusting a staff, stopping a flow, averting disaster, resolving calamities, using alchemy, swordsmanship, guessing riddles, earth element, astrology, arranging formations, feigning forms, spraying and transforming, finger transformation, corpse dissolution, shifting scenery, summoning, going away, gathering beasts, taming birds, restricting qi, great strength, penetrating stone, generating light, shielding clothing, guiding, consuming food, opening walls, leaping over rocks, sprouting, climbing and copying, drinking water, lying in snow, scorching the sun, playing with balls, talisman water, medicine, knowing the time, knowing the place, abstaining from grains, and praying for a nightmare.
Seventy-two supernatural powers, each with infinite uses.
Zhao Chen was so engrossed in the inheritance that he couldn't extricate himself for a long time.
---
In the days that followed, Zhao Chen first focused on stabilizing his cultivation level, and then practiced his spear techniques on the mountaintop. Previously, due to not having taken human form, he hadn't been able to practice spear techniques, but now was the perfect time. This set of spear techniques was called the Basic Spear Technique, obtained from his previous inheritance—not because there weren't better ones, but because he possessed memories from his previous life and deeply understood the importance of a foundation. The most practical, classic, and truly effective spear techniques were devoid of flashy moves, focusing entirely on real combat techniques.
This basic gun technique has 10 major moves.
(In order, from easiest to hardest) are respectively
Gun-holding stance
Hold the gun with both hands, the front hand like a tube and the back hand like a lock, the tip of the gun slightly higher than the heart, steady, upright and straight.
Zhongping spear
The most basic yet most powerful stance.
The spear tip points at a person's chest, unmoving as a mountain; all attacks originate from this point.
扎枪
The forward thrust is straight ahead, followed by a powerful push with the rear hand, while the front hand is only responsible for maintaining direction.
The mnemonic: The spear pierces a single line.
拦
The spear tip arced to the left, deflecting the opponent's weapon.
take
The spear tip arcs to the right, deflecting the opponent's weapon/gun barrel.
The techniques of blocking and seizing are collectively known as "blocking, seizing, and striking," which are the three fundamental techniques of spear fighting.
collapse
With a sudden upward flick of the wrist, the spear tip snapped, striking the opponent's wrist and weapon.
point
The spear tip makes a short, sharp downward strike, hitting the hand, wrist, or vital organs.
pick
Apply force from bottom to top to deflect or strike the opponent's weapon.
劈
The gun barrel is swung down from above, relying on force to suppress the opponent.
圈枪
Draw small circles with the tip of the spear to defend against and disrupt the opponent's weapons, preparing for a thrust.
There is also a simple practice sequence.
First practice the gun-holding stance + level gun (stable).
Practice thrusting the spear (strength) again.
Practice blocking and seizing (defense) again.
Combination: Block → Take → Throw
It took him half a year to stabilize his realm, and he also mastered the basic marksmanship. Finally, he practiced the newly acquired supernatural abilities, which were:
"Fiery Eyes of Truth"—following the method in his mind, he channeled his magical power into his eyes. His eyes burned, and his vision began to blur. He endured the discomfort and continued circulating the method. A quarter of an hour later, the burning sensation subsided, and he opened his eyes. The world had changed—he could clearly see the flow of energy in the distance and the mineral deposits inside the mountains. However, because this supernatural power was extremely taxing on his spirit, he could only maintain it for a short while.
Golden Crow Escape—he transformed into a golden ray of light, traversing the mountains. The first time, he nearly crashed into the mountainside; the second time, he was somewhat out of control; the third time, he finally managed to barely maintain his direction. He practiced for a whole month, and finally mastered the technique.
The Golden Crow's Cry—a divine power that attacks the soul, requiring precise control of the primordial spirit. He tried several times but failed each time, deciding to save it for later practice.
Zhao Chen also studied the Seventy-Two Transformations of the Earthly Fiends.
Invisibility was the first skill he mastered. Combined with the Golden Crow Escape Technique, this allowed him to truly appear and disappear without a trace. He activated the technique, his figure gradually becoming transparent, finally vanishing completely from the spot. Even he himself couldn't sense his own presence.
The ability to transform into a shape allowed him to change his appearance at will. He tried to become a stone, and he succeeded; then he tried to become a mountain, but failed—that required a higher level of cultivation. But at this moment, Zhao Chen could easily transform into human form, beast form, or even flowers, plants, and trees.
The Divine Speed and the Golden Crow Escape Light complemented each other, further enhancing his speed.
The ability to create clones is the most mysterious of all. His first attempt only produced a phantom shadow, which crumbled at the slightest touch. After seven days of practice, he was finally able to create a physical clone, which, although it could only last for a quarter of an hour, was enough to confuse the enemy in battle.
Zhao Chen also practiced supernatural abilities such as immobilization, carrying mountains, and water control. Although their power was limited, they were practical.
---
Several more months have passed.
Zhao Chen sat cross-legged on the mountain peak, focusing his inner vision on his dantian. His golden core was completely stable, slowly rotating within it. His Fiery Eyes of Truth could remain activated for a quarter of an hour, and he could control the Golden Crow Escape Light at will. Although he had only mastered three or four of the Seventy-Two Transformations of Earthly Fiends, it was enough to handle most situations.
As for breaking through to the Golden Core stage, which would allow him to inscribe array patterns on magic weapons, he currently lacks the materials and can only wait until later.
He stood up and looked in the direction of the void creatures.
This time, he was confident.