Chapter 278: Body law breakthrough

The invitation arose the interest of every single power within the city limits. The independent association sought the help of many powers, but the initial reaction was somewhat negative. No powers were willing to let out their strongest warriors for the excursion to eliminate bandits.

The reason for this pattern was the fact that the city powers didn't hold any sort of advantage within the Taiwan Mountains. Except for the sites which were forcefully controlled by strong powers within the central plains, the rest of the sites were left barren. Even the huge deposit of resources couldn't create enough allure for the powers to work together.

Although a huge excursion was a failure, one had to understand the fact that the lack of knowledge regarding the terrain posed a huge disadvantage for any power that tries to eliminate the bandits. Although some powers have tried to establish their strongholds, most of them failed to persist for even a week. Only those who have extraordinary means or dangerously powerful backing could sustain their camps from the raid of the bandits.

The powers situated within the city had often requested the help of the powers who occupy huge deposits within the mountain range. But they were not successful in the slightest. The powers who managed to establish themselves didn't want to allow the emergence of another competitor, as that would lead to a decrease in the number of resources for them.

"We need to take some serious steps, or the alliance would lose its face in the world." One of the top echelon members spoke up.

"Are you willing to lead the expedition into the mountains then?" One of the vice leaders asked. The elder who spoke earlier lowered his head. He didn't want to act as a Guinea pig. The potential danger was too great.

"I thought so. Blabbering about the problem around you is quite easy. If someone couldn't come with a solution, I advise them to shut their mouth up." The vice-leader spoke up. He was a powerful advanced-level Qi King. He has contributed immensely to the development of an independent cultivator organization.

"Calm down. We need to think seriously about this matter. Although the comment earlier was somewhat inappropriate, we do need to take some strict action against the bandit groups." Another man spoke up. Although he wasn't a vice-leader, his seniority surpassed the man who spoke earlier.

"I have an idea for preliminary action. We need to increase the rewards for live capture. If a powerful cultivator who roams around the range is capable enough of catching one of the bandit members, we would be able to learn the site where they have established their stronghold."

"Even if we are going to increase the rewards, it wouldn't be able to entice an advance Qi King cultivator. The disparity in strength is too much. Intermediate Qi Kings might be enticed, but the bandit's groups would be able to take care of them quite easily. We need to do something so huge that even the Qi Emperors are forced to act against the bandit's groups."

The vice leader's comment attracted the attention of the members around. "Anyone have any suggestions regarding this matter?"

"I might have a solution for you." A figure suddenly appeared within the assembly. All the upper echelon members instantly raised their weapons in defence, but the vice-leader raised his hand to stop them from acting.

"Who are you?" The vice-leader asked with a grim tone. The men were covered in a black drape covering his whole body. No one could identify him due to the cover over his face. Although the weaker members couldn't sense anything, the vice-leader could feel a dangerous aura seeping out of his body. He felt that he wouldn't be a match for this man.

"I am ready to help you, but you need to help me in return."

"What do you propose?"

"The plan has the potential to create a storm within the city, framing the bandits for things that they didn't do. I will create a scenario where every power would be forced to act against the bandits hiding within the mountains. All you need to do is to capture one of the bandits within the mountain." A mental message was heard by the vice-leader.

The vice-leader gave it a deep thought and finally agreed to the proposal. The plan was quite enticing because it would force every single power within the city to act together. They would manage to eliminate many bandit groups with the help of their power. The man presented him with a portrait of the target about to be captured. When opened, a young man's face came into view. It was none other than Sima Yu.

The black figure was trying to capture Sima Yu.

.................

In the cave-

The group returned after eliminating the excursion group and began to report the results to the vice-leader. The leader soon approved the identities of Long Tao's avatars. After that one of the avatars entered the cultivation room, where Li Meng was training. Soon after that, a formation was laid by Li Meng which concealed both him and the avatar from the surrounding area. Sima Yu didn't mid this action as he knew that everyone had their own secrets.

Li Meng started setting up another formation that would be able to promote the avatar's chances in the breakthrough. The formation was designed to circulate blood energy from the Crimson Lord world into the formation and finally inject it into the avatar's body. The avatar was going to break-through Qi king level using body law.

The reason for this proposal was the fact that body law was going to create a much smaller commotion than the elemental laws and hence wouldn't attract any unwanted attention to the mountain. Body law manifested itself directly within the cultivator's body rather than its surroundings. 

The Keeper soon connected the blood-essence pool with the formation and Li Meng began to operate it. The avatar soon felt his body getting filled with an immense amount of blood energy and tried to sense the body laws. At first, the avatar encountered a huge barrier, which led Li Meng to narrow his brows.

"You shouldn't get distracted by his expressions. Body laws are not easy to achieve as elemental laws because the human and earthen level doesn't contain any. If you wanted to connect with a body law, it had to be directly connected to the Heavenly level. The barrier is quite natural."

Hearing the Keeper's explanation, LI meng began to relax, but even after a long time, there was no progress. The avatar was simply unable to connect with body law. When Li Meng glanced toward the Keeper, he could see an unsightly expression on his face.

"This isn't natural right?"

"Even I am not sure about the reason behind this anomaly. All I can say is that the procedure seems to be lacking."

"What could be done to increase our chances?" Li Meng asked. Both men were forced into silence as they couldn't come up with a solution. The avatars continued to extrude more and more blood energy to connect with a body law.

Sometime later a slight change occurred within the avatar's body. Unknown to him, the meridians began to act automatically. The avatar felt that the barrier seemed to have loosened a bit. This phenomenon was observed by the Keeper and Li Meng. They glanced at each other and smiled.

"Use the meridians while extruding the blood essence energy." The avatar followed the instructions, and miraculously the barrier began to shake. A huge amount of progress was found.

"Start using the acupoints one after the other." The barrier began to fade slowly. Soon enough the highest amount of power was extruded, and the barrier was extremely thin. The avatar managed to feel body laws. 

Many options appeared in front of the avatar. But Li Meng had decided that he would concentrate on overall body laws. The two prominent options which appeared were Heavenly Barbarian law and Hell Devil law. The avatar tried to connect with one of the laws, but soon enough an absurd phenomenon took place. When the law energy flowed into the avatar's body, it led to a sudden imbalance within his body, and he suffered a backlash. Blood flowed out of the avatar's mouth.

"What happened?" Li Meng grew nervous.

"This is what I feared the most. A single law connection would lead to an imbalance in your body and it would burst. You need to connect with both of the energy at the same time."

"Are you insane? It is near impossible to control singular law energy, much less two."

"That is the only way you would be able to connect with either of the laws. They come as a set and you need to connect with them as a set. It is the only way you would be able to maintain a balance between the two conflicting laws."

Li Meng couldn't help but nod at the fact. The process was going to be quite difficult.