83: Chapter 82: Collecting the Corpse and the [Heavenly River Black Tortoise Formation]

"[Tianhe Budu]!! Manifest!!"

The new [Tianhe Budu] expanded for the first time, the setting sun still blood-red.

However, the originally bluish-black Wu River had completely turned into the same color as the former Black Water River.

On the riverbank, the [Yin Soldier Main Tent], [Ghostly Water Boat], [Military Cauldron], and [Military Drum] were all gone.

Only the [bawang pidi sword] remained stuck alone atop that mound.

[Remember this domain, search Taiwan novels on kn.com, super awesome]

With a thought, Sun Po arrived inside the main hall of the [Tianhe Water Mansion Core].

A large, four-legged, two-eared bronze square ding over a meter tall stood right in the center of the hall.

Encircling the four sides of the ding were meander patterns depicting four huge, six-eared monkey faces. Beneath these massive faces,

were meander patterns of fishmen and seawater, occupying a very small area.

The overall shape of the large ding and its rusted bronze texture gave it a heavy, ancient simplicity.

Though not huge in size, it inexplicably felt unshakeable.

Sun Po knew that this was [emperor yus ding].

The ding was filled with black liquid,

extremely similar to the pool of liquid he had seen that day at the [Tianhe Water Mansion Training Ground],

but the color of the liquid inside the ding was noticeably deeper.

At this moment, however, a little white puffball was floating inside this puddle of black water.

Looking closely, it was none other than [Changyou].

Floating on its back with an intoxicated expression, it looked just like a cat high on catnip.

It even hummed softly while blowing a little bubble out of its nostrils, before letting out a satisfied burp.

Seeing how comfortably it was lying there, Sun Po didn't call it. Opening up [Changyou]'s status panel,

he discovered his cub had actually reached [Purple 9-Star]. When they first arrived in Jinyang City,

[Changyou] was only [Purple 5-Star], having gained a mere 2 stars since birth.

He wondered if it was because [Changyou] studied skills so ferociously every day,

to the point where Sun Po felt star upgrades didn't increase combat power that much anymore.

Of course, if other Card Makers heard Sun Po's humblebragging thoughts, they would probably want to strangle him.

Upgrading stars was inherently a gradual process of improving a card's development and maturity;

it was how most Card Makers steadily grew stronger step-by-step. But a hacker-like existence like [Changyou],

who learned a new skill every few days, naturally wouldn't be very sensitive to the modest combat stat boosts.

As Sun Po was thinking, [Changyou], who was comfortably soaking with squinted eyes, caught sight of Sun Po in its peripheral vision. Its small face filled with joy,

and with a "swoosh," it flew out from [emperor yus ding] right onto Sun Po's face, hugging and licking him frantically.

Caught off guard, Sun Po struggled for a long while before finally pulling the little creature off his face.

One could only say that leopards can't change their spots.

Back during its [Spirit Monkey] stage, it already had the dog-like habit of licking Sun Po.

It had finally improved as its IQ grew, but today it revealed its true colors once more.

"Alright, that's enough. Tell me, how is it?"

[Changyou] happily flew up from the ground, climbed onto Sun Po's shoulder, and said:

"Master, this ding is absolutely amazing!

It completely boosted the skill intensity and compatibility of [Tianhe Budu],

though I haven't researched [Asking Heaven] and [Authority Sacrifice] yet."

Sun Po didn't reply directly; instead, with a shift in thought,

within the area of [Tianhe Budu], monster corpses rapidly sank down one after another.

They sank into the soil and river water of this domain, being swiftly swallowed up until they vanished completely.

Correspondingly, a ball of gas began to float above [emperor yus ding]. The gas ball was currently grey,

but as all the corpses were absorbed, it gradually changed, finally settling on white.

Sun Po realized what was happening and breathed a sigh of relief in his heart.

Thankfully, he didn't actually have to carry them one by one, or he'd be in for a nightmare.

From the look of it, as long as the monster corpses were within the secret realm, they could be automatically absorbed and dumped into [emperor yus ding].

The gas ball presumably represented the quality of materials available for [Asking Heaven].

So Sun Po retracted [Tianhe Budu], walked over to a new pile of corpses, and unleashed it again,

repeating the process while asking [Changyou]:

"There's no rush for that. For now, I don't have suitable materials for [Asking Heaven] anyway,

let alone divine authority to sacrifice. First, tell me how your research on the [Tianhe Naval Forces] is coming along."

[Changyou] seemed extremely intrigued by the corpse-devouring process, but still quickly replied:

"Originally, I had already taught the seven [Tianhe Naval Forces] transformed from the [Water Soldier]s to form the [Tianhe Xuanwu Great Array].

Oh, right! The [Tianhe Xuanwu Great Array] is a combination of the [Xuanyue Turtle Spirit Array] and the [Heishui Snake Spirit Array].

It's a compound formation that can only be used by deity cards, and its power is impressive."

Sun Po still had some impression of the [Xuanyue Turtle Spirit Array] and [Heishui Snake Spirit Array].

These two spirit arrays were precisely the formations [Changyou] had learned back at the [Tianhe Water Mansion Archives], but there hadn't been much opportunity to practice them.

Sun Po thought to himself, "Who would've thought that combining turtle and snake could actually create Xuanwu?"

[Changyou] continued, "But yesterday, when the [Tianhe Secret Realm] underwent a massive change,

the [Tianhe Water Mansion Training Ground] transformed directly into the [Tianhe Training Ground] at the bottom of the Calamity Heavenly River.

So I had these [Tianhe Naval Forces] go to the new training ground to undergo another transformation.

The consumption of calamity aura was actually much lower than a normal transformation. However, in the successful [Calamity Rider] form,

the soldiers currently lack proper mounts, making it difficult to demonstrate their power.

I also don't have a formation suited for a cavalry state yet,

so for now, the [Tianhe Naval Forces] state remains stronger."

Just as Sun Po finished collecting all the corpses in the secret realm,

the gas ball above [emperor yus ding] reached a purple level.

Sun Po couldn't help but sigh:

"This thing really is a giant corpse collector!"

The corpses of at least ten thousand [Mutated Deep One]s had only pushed it up to purple.

Looking down, Sun Po saw that [Changyou] seemed a bit guilty about not knowing a formation suitable for cavalry, so he waved his hand and said,

"You've already done very well. I'm very satisfied."

Suddenly, he remembered that [Changyou] had gulped down calamity aura all the way to [Purple 9-Star],

and was now facing the issue of rank advancement. So he said,

"However, your rank advancement might have to wait a bit. I don't know much about this aspect yet."

It wasn't that Sun Po hadn't worked hard back in high school; it was mainly because high school was merely an introductory phase.

Teaching public cultivation techniques for Card Makers eliminated plenty of students already, so teaching card rank advancement? That was indeed unnecessary for most students.

But Sun Po had heard a bit about it—supposedly starting from Green to Blue, card advancement was no longer a simple stacking of energy.

It seemed media were required; poorer methods used media as close to the card's attributes as possible,

while better methods used media that were related but of higher quality.

A good medium could bestow a new power system and new skills upon the card,

whereas a poor medium merely helped the card advance ranks.

One could say that the gap between Card Makers was largely widened during card rank advancement.

As for what kind of advancement media top noble scions like Li Tiance used, Sun Po had no idea.

In short, this was a completely unfamiliar territory for now, and Sun Po didn't want to make a hasty decision.

Besides, right now his forces were strong and well-supplied,

making it the perfect time to explore beneath the abyss.

...