The Modern Martial Immortal

Chapter 169: Reversal

Breaking through to the Primordial Psyche Realm had never been difficult for Yaoguang. If not for deliberately holding his level back, he would have advanced months earlier, the first time he obtained that Psyche-Transforming Pill.

He wouldn’t even need that! If he truly wanted to advance, the experience gained from the Merchant profession after completing the Purple Firmament Type 12 flying sword orders would have been enough to fully max out the Psyche Dao branch and push him to a breakthrough.

He had simply wanted to take advantage of the period before the manpower costs skyrocketed, using the Merchant profession to grind as much experience as possible.

However, his reputation had grown far too quickly lately. His status as an artifact-refinement master had steadily been approaching that of an artifact-refinement grandmaster, and the rise in manpower costs was already approaching the changes brought by a realm breakthrough.

He had planned to finish the external orders from the Golden Temple, elevate his Refiner branch from the grandmaster tier into an entirely new domain, and then accumulate enough reserves to push either Martial Dao or Psyche Dao in one burst, leaping from star lord to star god, or from Primordial Psyche to Dharma Form, before advancing realms. But plans had to be adapted to the circumstances.

The Infinite Star Palace had long monopolized the high-end artifact refinement market. The high-grade spirit swords he refined, whose performance rivaled fourth-generation models, had severely eaten into Infinite Star Palace’s spirit artifact market share. Coupled with the fact that after devouring the Quicksand Sect, the Infinite Star Palace had already been searching for its next prey, it was only natural that its gaze turned toward the Nine Cauldrons Sect.

Yaoguang was a target, but not the sole target. The arrival of a Sky Patrol Warship brought crushing pressure, forcing Yaoguang to make a decision. In a single move, he poured all of his accumulated experience into the Psyche Dao branch.

He would have preferred the Martial Dao, which offered greater personal security. But under the current circumstances, if he wanted to break the deadlock, he could only rely on the power of the primordial psyche cultivated through Psyche Dao.

”I should be able to do it.” Yaoguang perceived all the profound changes stemming from his primordial psyche breakthrough.

The Taiyuan Psyche Refinement Technique was, intrinsically, a psyche refinement art capable of multitasking, offering exceptional stability and strong resistance to interference. It did not allow one to sense hundreds of kilometers away immediately upon breakthrough, nor did it possess overwhelming disruptive power like some other psyche refinement arts. Instead, it leaned more toward defense. But paired with the Psyche King, its effectiveness was amplified even further.

Several minutes later, at the western array node of Longxiang City, directly facing the Sky Patrol Warship, streams of sword light streaked across the sky at once, appearing outside the array node. Three figures descended.

”I am Zhao He. Sword cultivators will follow my command.”

”I am Fang Jie. Spell cultivators are under my dispatch.”

”I am Xu Kong. Psyche cultivators will be coordinated by me.”

”Good.” Yaoguang’s gaze swept over the three of them, including the familiar Zhao He. ”Time is tight, so I will make it short. Everyone, initiate a new round of attacks. But for this round, all of your psychic thoughts, spiritual consciousness, and the attacks themselves will accept my guidance and command.”

As soon as Yaoguang finished speaking, his primordial psyche manifested; he didn’t give the sword cultivators, spell cultivators, or psyche cultivators any time to question him. A powerful wave of psychic thought instantly enveloped the hundreds of great cultivators present, guiding and merging their spiritual consciousness and psychic thoughts into a single whole.

This change stunned those who still harbored doubts, resentment, or even believed Zhao Siliang had issued reckless orders.

”This is...”

”Our psychic thoughts seem to be linked by some mysterious force, making our power feel like a single entity!”

”Senior Brother, I feel like I can easily perceive your strength now.”

All kinds of astonished thoughts echoed through the minds of the great cultivators, including Zhao He, Fang Jie, and Xu Kong. Each of them was among the strongest cultivators in the Nine Heavens Domain.

Zhao He went without saying. His Dao Foundation had long reached its peak, and he had also ignited Truefire and cultivated two powerful sword arts to perfection, possessing both the speed and killing power that defined elite sword cultivators.

Fang Jie had mastered a level 6 divine ability. The Annihilation Purple Light that had just torn a trench thousands of kilometers long across the land had been released under his guidance. As for Xu Kong, he was an even stronger primordial psyche cultivator than Bai Lu.

He had already delved deep into the Purple Firmament Divine Lightning layer and had endured its tempering more than once. He was the kind of powerful psyche cultivator who, with a single moment of enlightenment, could touch the Dharma Form.

And yet, at this moment, all three of them fixed their gazes on Yaoguang in unison, their eyes filled with delight. ”Chief Yaoguang, this is...”

”I need your cooperation!” Yaoguang said quickly.

”Alright!” Zhao He replied, his spiritual consciousness surging. ”Sword cultivators, follow Chief Yaoguang’s guidance!”

”This is truly unbelievable! Spell cultivators, our chance to counterattack has arrived!”

”Our earlier failure stemmed from the failure of us primordial psyche cultivators. In theory, it should have been us guiding the sword cultivators into the Sky Patrol Warship. Instead, we couldn’t even get close, and our sword cultivator brothers fell under attacks guided by the enemy’s primordial psyche cultivators. This time, we must show them that the Nine Cauldrons Sect’s psyche cultivators are inferior to no one in the world!” Xu Kong also rallied their fighting spirit. ”Everyone, merge your psychic thought into Chief Yaoguang’s psychic thought!”

As Yaoguang’s strength gained unanimous recognition, and as the three division heads issued their orders, everyone responded, merging their power with his.

Even though Yaoguang deliberately coordinated only a portion of their strength so as not to interfere with their own performance, his psychic thought and spiritual consciousness still soared to an unprecedented level. With this power, he’d be able to crush Zhao He, Fang Jie, or Xu Kong like rotten wood meeting a hammer, had they been enemies

But now, all he needed to do was use this power for coordination and to condense everyone’s strength into a single force.

”Attention!” Yaoguang’s psychic thought rippled outward, instantly resonating with the psychic thoughts and spiritual consciousness of the hundreds of great cultivators present.

”Psyche cultivators, open the path! Prepare to launch a psychic-thought storm!”

”Sword cultivators, get ready! Charge up the Nine Heavens Lightning Tribulation Sword Formation!”

”Spell cultivators, begin casting. Have yin and yang collide with each other, and activate the Annihilation Purple Light!”

As the commands were issued, the spiritual consciousness and psychic thoughts of the sword cultivators, spell cultivators, and psyche cultivators were unified, as though they had fused into a single entity.

The instant each sword cultivator struck, they could clearly sense where their life-bound flying sword failed to align perfectly with the others. Every spell cultivator could perceive whether their spell was well-coordinated with the others or was dissipating part of its power. Every primordial psyche cultivator could perfectly estimate how their psychic thoughts should be layered together so that this psychic-thought storm, raised by countless different cultivators, could reach its absolute peak.

The coordination of hundreds of cultivators reached an unprecedented level of perfection. It was as if the power of hundreds of great cultivators had been stacked and overlaid onto a single person...

The effects of amplification, elevation, and transformation were so overwhelming that even Yaoguang himself felt a jolt of alarm.

”My heavens, I’m so strong!”

”It’s not that you’re strong. We’re strong!”

”So this is what happens when our power is perfectly coordinated... We can actually reach this level?!”

”Junior Brothers, I want to go kill a Golden Core cultivator! Anyone coming with me?”

”Nope! Get lost!”

Everyone felt unprecedentedly powerful, so powerful that everyone’s morale and confidence surged to a level never before reached!

On the horizon, the Infinite Star Palace’s Sky Patrol Warship, more than a thousand meters in diameter and shrouded in countless arrays, smashed through the clouds. It tore through the air at supersonic speed, kicking up a visibly violent shockwave as it appeared within everyone’s perception.

On the warship, the captain, Jormun, wore a faintly amused expression. ”Looks like they plan to turtle up behind Longxiang City’s arrays?”

”According to our data, Longxiang City’s arrays are on the same level as those of Nine Heavens City. And since these arrays were deployed earlier, their operation is even more mature,” the aide replied.

”No matter how mature, they’re still first-generation arrays. They’ve already been warned. Since they insist on being stubborn...” Jormun said, rising from his captain’s chair and gazing through the bridge at the city shimmering with flowing light in the distance. He issued the order directly. ”Relay the command. Launch the attack. Crush them!”

Almost simultaneously...

”Everyone, listen to my command!” Yaoguang’s psychic thought, carried through his unified control, instantly spread through the minds of all the great cultivators.

”We’re listening, Chief Yaoguang. Give the order!”

”My greatsword is already starving!”

”Standing by!”

Through the convergence of psychic thought and spiritual consciousness, the cultivators responded instantly, each one brimming with fighting spirit and battle intent soaring skyward.

”Good! Psyche cultivators, open the way! Psychic-thought storm, charge!”

”Sword cultivators, attack! Nine Heavens Lightning Tribulation Sword Formation, break the arrays!”

”Spell cultivators, finish it off! Annihilation Purple Light, kill the enemy!”

Three commands were delivered to every great cultivator almost at the same instant. In the next moment, a psychic-thought storm whose total magnitude had not changed, yet whose order and cohesion were unprecedented, crossed the 150-kilometer distance between the city and the Sky Patrol Warship in a flash.

The Sky Patrol Warship, having also received its own attack orders, released a psychic-thought storm of equal raw power almost simultaneously, smashing head-on into the incoming force. But unlike the initial exchanges, where the two forces had canceled each other out, this time, the psychic thought unleashed from the Infinite Star Palace’s Sky Patrol Warship was like a wave crashing against a reef, instantly shattered into fragments, spraying countless ripples outward.

After crushing the warship’s psychic-thought interference and resistance, the storm slammed directly into the Sky Patrol Warship itself.

In an instant, no one knew how many arrays aboard the warship stalled in their operation, nor how many sword cultivators and spell cultivators suffered mental interference, their thoughts disrupted as illusions flashed before their eyes.

The entire Sky Patrol Warship seemed to freeze for a single beat, completely stunned by this sudden impact, far more powerful than anything it had faced before.