Chapter 1224: Chapter 517: Minor Heavenly Tribulation [Subscribe Requested]

After testing the power of the divine skills, Zhou Chun began to relax and recover at the Su Family’s residence.

During this period, he also made a trip to the Mountain Gate of the Moon Wheel Sect. He paid a visit to Baiyue True Person, the sect leader, and subtly probed into his opinion on Taoist Qingchen’s Nascent Soul formation.

Unfortunately, Baiyue True Person was extremely tight-lipped, and Zhou Chun couldn’t glean a single useful piece of information.

Thus, he could only settle his mind, focus on healing, and wait patiently for the results to unfold.

During his recovery, apart from the daily nurturing and cultivation of his dharma treasures, Zhou Chun began to study the methods of training several divine ability arts.

After completing the “Reforging of the Shattered Cauldron,” he could now train some of the formidable divine skills recorded in the external four chapters of the “Golden Cauldron Profound Technique.”

For instance, the “Metal Escape Technique,” a skill he had long yearned for, had detailed cultivation methods recorded therein.

Another skill called “Falling Treasure Golden Light” caught his attention, as mastering it allowed one to knock away dharma treasures forged with Spirit Gold, temporarily severing the owner’s connection with the treasures. It deeply fascinated and intrigued him.

There was even mention of the renowned “Alchemy Transformation” skill, which could transform stone into gold and, upon reaching profound levels, potentially convert enemy divine skills into gold!

However, the more powerful these divine skills were, the harder they were to cultivate.

After reaching the Golden Core stage, Zhou Chun found it much easier to comprehend and train in the secret arts and divine skills he had previously practiced, progressing quickly and gaining insights without much effort.

But for the above three divine skills, despite his best efforts to comprehend them for six months straight, his progress remained almost nonexistent.

The only marginal breakthrough was during his study of the “Metal Escape Technique,” where he gained deeper insights into the “Flowing Light Golden Rainbow” escape technique that he had cultivated earlier, identifying new directions to further elevate and refine it.

According to Zhou Chun’s estimation, the “Flowing Light Golden Rainbow” escape technique was likely a derivative secret technique born from the “Metal Escape Technique.”

Similarly, the secret art he practiced, “United Heart Golden Lock,” seemed to have some connection with the “Falling Treasure Golden Light” divine skill.

Zhou Chun also consulted the Ancestor of the Su Family and Su Yuzhen about their experiences in cultivating divine skills such as the “Water Escape Technique.”

The answers he received offered some solace.

Take the ancestor of the Su Family, for example–a veteran Golden Core stage cultivator who had been at this stage for hundreds of years. He had successfully mastered the “Water Escape Technique” divine skill, achieving underwater escape speeds comparable to those of top-tier third-order water demons.

But this was the fruit of his persistent and dedicated training efforts spanning hundreds of years!

As for Su Yuzhen, she had only grasped a rudimentary understanding of it so far, with the results being comparable to that of an average second-order water demon.

Given that even a relatively simple divine skill like “Water Escape Technique” posed such challenges for these two Golden Core stage cultivators, it was entirely reasonable for Zhou Chun to encounter difficulties progressing in the far-more-difficult “Metal Escape Technique.”

In truth, divine skills like the Five Elements Escaping Techniques were generally easy to learn but hard to master.

Grasping the basics, such as escaping through earth, water, or trees, wasn’t particularly burdensome. Even Foundation Establishment cultivators could manage this after acquiring the proper methods and focusing on their training for a while.

However, achieving mastery was extraordinarily difficult!

Take the “Metal Escape Technique” as an example. The cultivation manual Zhou Chun obtained stated that the skill could only be considered to have reached the stage of minor achievement when one could traverse a thousand miles in a single escape.

If successfully cultivated to this minor achievement stage, even when pursued by Nascent Soul stage cultivators, one had a considerable chance of escaping.

Yet, even Nascent Soul stage cultivators found it daunting to train the “Metal Escape Technique” to minor achievement.

If the skill could be cultivated to the great achievement stage, then, as long as one wasn’t deprived of the opportunity to utilize escape techniques, facing formidable enemies who had mastered other powerful escape skills, or entering territories that restricted escape techniques, the vastness of this realm would offer limitless places to travel!

Though these divine skills might seem mundane, in truth, they touched upon the Great Dao’s Laws, and their potential ceiling was boundless!

Many cultivators dedicated their entire lifetimes to perfecting one or two divine skills, striving to achieve prowess in them.

Any Golden Core stage cultivator capable of substantial accomplishment within a specific divine skill was invariably a distinguished figure in their nation, often being addressed as a “Little True Person.” Even Nascent Soul stage True Persons would afford them respect when encountering them!

In fact, precisely because divine skills were incredibly difficult to cultivate, the cultivation world gave rise to myriad secret techniques.

Compared to those direct approaches to the Great Dao through divine skills, secret techniques often relied on consuming certain spiritual objects to achieve similar effects more quickly.

Despite the challenges in cultivating divine skills, Zhou Chun had no intentions of giving up.

Nowadays, his daily meditation and cultivation sessions had extended to eight hours, with the remaining four hours typically devoted to comprehending the “Metal Escape Technique” and training in the “Beast Spirit Fusion Technique” secret art. All his other secret arts were temporarily set aside.

That was the might of Golden Core stage cultivators; for them, sleep was something required only once a month–or even every few months–or could simply be dispensed with altogether.

If they wished to restore their energy state via sleep, a single slumber could last days or even months.

In essence, once reaching the Golden Core stage, a cultivator was entirely physiologically different from mortals.

Recovery time passed swiftly, and before long, over a year had gone by.

With the aid of healing pills and the mutual replenishment achieved through dual cultivation, Zhou Chun’s previously depleted Essence Energy had recovered by five to six-tenths in just one year, surpassing his expectations.

At this point, Lin Hongyu and her husband had returned to the Zhou Family, prompting Zhou Chun to visit his family once again.

“Zhengchun, it’s perfect timing for your return. We heard that you recently lost quite a bit of Essence Energy. During our recent travels, we managed to obtain several Spirit Peaches that greatly replenish Essence Energy. Take two of them back with you to consume.”