The First Immortal of Destiny

CRACK!

A thick bolt of lightning struck the mansion.

The entire courtyard was instantly blasted apart, transforming into debris flying in all directions.

Only after the electrical light and dust dissipated did the figure of the peak Second-Order Heavenly Demon reveal itself.

Its body was completely charred and still emitting wisps of black smoke!

Its aura was extremely weakened, lying in the pit that had melted into glass, its body twitching from time to time.

I've only just begun to cultivate this Great Hand Seal.

Yet even at the middle-stage of Qi Gathering, I can severely injure a peak Second-Order demon head; its power is not to be underestimated...

However, this demon head is also cunning.

Even in such a situation, it still pretended to be on the brink of death, coaxing me to come down!

Shen Mo couldn't help but find it amusing.

His hands rapidly formed one hand seal after another, muttering a pithy mantra under his breath.

Simultaneously, streams of Purple Knack Mana flowed through his arm's Chakra and poured into his hands.

Along with the hand seals and the pithy mantra, they flowed, changed, condensed, and agitated in an incredibly complex and profound manner.

"Seven Mansions of the Vermilion Bird in the South, Palm, Ghost!" Shen Mo recited in a low voice.

The final hand seal he settled on had his left hand inside and his right hand outside, with the back of his left fingers lightly resting on his right wrist.

His left thumb pinched the first joint of his middle finger.

His right index finger curled back, pinching the second joint of his thumb.

Immediately, a sheep-like phantom shot out from his hands, heading straight for the demon head below.

This peak Second-Order Heavenly Demon sensed something was amiss when Shen Mo began forming hand seals. It dragged its charred demonic body, stirring up Demonic Qi to attack him.

As a result, it was struck by the sheep-like phantom and immediately froze rigidly in place.

It was as if its mind had been bewildered!

Shen Mo, standing on the Thunderstroke Sword, slowly descended.

Unhurriedly, he approached the demon head. The Demon Slaying Sword in his hand swept across, and the Heavenly Demon's head rolled off.

After collecting a wisp of its residual aura into the jade pendant, Shen Mo unleashed the Nether Fire, burning the decapitated demonic body to ashes!

The sheep-like phantom must be the Ghost Golden Sheep from the Seven Mansions of the South.

That previous Constellations Palm of the Eastern Seven Mansions, which released a dragon-shaped phantom, was not a True Dragon, but a Horned Flood Dragon!

The power of this Great Hand Seal is formidable, but it's just too difficult to cultivate.

Over the past three days, Shen Mo had been constantly using [Martial Performance] to deduce and cultivate the "Constellation Great Hand Seal"!

However, this spiritual level cultivation method was incredibly difficult and arduous to practice.

The ten fingers of both hands have a total of twenty-eight knuckles, each corresponding to one of the twenty-eight constellations!

The changes in hand seals represented the revolution of the constellations and the shifting of the stars.

Hence, simply forming one hand seal could not smoothly execute one of the Constellations Palms. Twenty-eight transformations were required to successfully execute one!

Moreover, the hand seals formed with each transformation were different; the types of hand seals alone numbered 784.

However, merely getting the hand seals right was not enough. The pithy mantra and the circulation of Mana also involved a multitude of complex variations!

Shen Mo had calculated it. All sorts of changes accumulated to produce 481,890,304 minor variations.

What he needed to do was, from these numerous minor variations, to flawlessly execute the hand seals, recite the pithy mantra, and circulate his Mana until he could perfectly execute a Constellations Palm!

Therefore, even with his Destiny [Martial Performance], Shen Mo could currently only execute two Constellations Palms!

The remaining twenty-six Constellations Palms would probably require another thirty-nine days of cultivation using [Martial Performance].

This was the case for him, who possessed a Special Destiny.

If it were any other cultivator, cultivating one Constellations Palm would require at least a month, or even several months, of arduous effort.

To learn all twenty-eight Constellations Palms would take three and a half years at the fastest, or possibly over a decade at the slowest. Only then could one be said to have somewhat achieved Senior!

To cultivate to Senior, let alone Perfection, was absolutely unthinkable without decades, or even centuries, of painstaking cultivation!

However, once this method was mastered, not only was its power formidable, but those who practiced this method would also have an array of versatile techniques at their disposal.

Each Constellations Palm embodied different powers, including slaughter, defense, trapping enemies, immobilization, intimidation, tracking, breaking Prohibitions, exorcising evil, calming the mind, inducing frenzy, and many other effects.

It could be said that cultivators who mastered this magic, even without cultivating other martial arts and cultivation methods, could walk unobstructed in the cultivation world with this method alone!

Shen Mo's gaze swept over the desolate mountain village for a moment.

Seeing no Heavenly Demons, major or minor, in the vicinity, he stepped onto his Thunderstroke Sword and flew towards Tianshan City.

Now that my strength has greatly improved, it's time to venture into that Underground Palace!

Previously, while traveling underground with Zhao Lingyin, he had stumbled upon a grand tomb, a veritable palace. However, at the time, Heavenly Demon Wan Wu was in close pursuit, so Shen Mo hadn't dispatched the Spirit Storage Rat to explore for treasures. Later, he had revisited the underground and attempted to break the Prohibition, only to find that he alone was powerless to breach the formation. He then had the Spirit Storage Rat use its Hiding Skill to burrow into the Underground Palace and investigate. Not long after, the little creature had escaped, trembling, its small, bean-like eyes filled with terror. After communicating via Divine Sense, Shen Mo gained a vague understanding of the dangers lurking within the Underground Palace.

Therefore, he had temporarily returned to Tianshan Mountain to continue slaying Heavenly Demons.

Now, mid to late-stage Second-Order Heavenly Demons were becoming rarer and more difficult to kill. Meanwhile, First-Order Heavenly Demons and early-stage Second-Order Heavenly Demons were still emerging in large numbers, so there was no rush to kill them and accumulate battle merits.

Thus, Shen Mo planned to invite a few good friends to break the Underground Palace's Prohibition together and explore the treasures within!

Senior Sister Chen isn't likely to refuse, and Lu Ming is strong enough.

Cao Ren's strength is too low; I'm afraid he'd die in there...

Pondering this, Shen Mo grabbed a Sound Transmission Talisman and sent messages to his various friends and acquaintances using his sense.

「Thirty miles away from Tianshan City, outside a village.」

Shen Mo quietly stood atop a mountain cliff, waiting for his invited friends to arrive.

WHOOSH!

A streak of light sped through the air. After hovering over Shen Mo's head for a moment, it landed beside him, revealing a graceful figure: Chen Mengze.

"Senior Sister Chen," Shen Mo said with a smile, greeting her.

Chen Mengze nodded, a puzzled look on her face. "Just now, I received a transmission from Senior Sister Jiang. Did you invite them as well?"

"Yes... Besides Senior Sister Jiang and her group of three, I've also invited Lu Ming from Stars Peak, Senior Brother Li Zhong, and Senior Sister Yao Ting," Shen Mo replied. "Senior Brother Li might bring two companions with him as well!"

"Is the Prohibition around that Underground Palace so formidable? Does it really require so many people to break it?"

"I've made some inquiries. The villagers here are mostly descendants of nobles from the previous dynasty. This Underground Palace... is very likely the tomb of the deposed crown prince of the former dynasty."

The Red Flame Country had experienced several dynasties, with the previous one ending over three hundred years ago. The deposed crown prince of that former dynasty was quite a legendary figure. Only after being deposed did he begin to cultivate. By the time the new dynasty was established, he was already a Spirit Sea Realm expert. He even made a considerable name for himself in the cultivation world. Where he eventually fell and where he was buried, however, had always remained unknown.

However, after communicating with the Spirit Storage Rat, Shen Mo was eighty percent certain that the master of this tomb was indeed that deposed crown prince.