Chapter 343 – Cat Dad's Breakthrough!
After acquiring the new Dao, Xiaomao challenged Wei Huang again.
When Wei Huang appeared, he immediately scolded the cat dad.
'What took you so long?! You were supposed to summon me!'
"I'm so sorry, grandpa. I was busy in real life."
'It doesn't matter. I'll humble you until it ingrains into your instinct!'
RUMBLE
Wei Huang's nascent soul domain enveloped Xiaomao and the plain. The massive semi-transparent dome covered over 100 square kilometers, including a part of the Life Essence Sea and some parts of the elemental foundation.
Without waiting for Xiaomao to prepare, Wei Huang unleashed 10,000 rapid sword strikes from a distance.
The 10,000 dimensional sword attacks cut Xiaomao's chest and back within a split second. The cat dad staggered forward two steps and snickered.
Wei Huang frowned. His domain contained the essence of Sword Element Qi and the Dao of Sword – All sword strikes should have sliced Xiaomao into 10,000 pieces, yet he was unable to cut through Xiaomao's bones.
Xiaomao grinned. His pupils changed color to yellow, and the dandy Dao Avatar in a black tactical suit appeared behind him. They looked up and gazed at Wei Huang.
DING
<You have activated the Dao Avatar Domain – Lone Wolf Guardian!>
<You are fighting alone. Reduce all incoming damage by 90% and increase your combat stats by 100 %!>
Xiaomao clenched his fist. For the first time, he survived Wei Huang's terrifying Sword Domain.
"Grandpa, I've been training when you weren't looking. I'm not a weakling anymore."
Wei Huang grinned. He transformed into a 3-meter giant Oni and his sword shape-shifted into a massive saber.
'Fine. I'll admit that you've grown stronger, but that's not how you solidify your foundation. Your sword techniques and sword understanding are still trash! I'll show you how a nascent soul cultivator really fight. Take notes, brat. This is what my ex-nemesis, Sword Saint Jia Shan, once mastered and earned his title!'
Xiaomao narrowed his eyes. He pulled Wei Feng's long sword out of his inventory. Then, he suddenly had an inspiration.
In the past sessions, he had never seen Wei Feng, Wei Xiong, or Wei Huang summon multiple Dao Avatars. Instead, their avatars seemed to be overlapping with them whenever they changed their attack patterns. Moreover, whenever they changed their combat style, their power output, strength, and speed improved momentarily.
Then, Xiaomao asked himself: Could he merge with his Dao Avatar as well to get the boost in strength?
The Sigma Dao Avatar glanced at Xiaomao as if he could read his master's thoughts. He slowly faded and merged with Xiaomao.
'Hoh? You get enlightened after I whipped you?'
Wei Huang paused and waited for Xiaomao to finish his experiment.
RUMBLE
The Sigma Element Foundation's area was a lone one-story wooden cabin in the middle of cultivated farmland. In front of the settlement, an empty dog house and an empty bowl were located next to the building. A golden crystal floated on top of the house while a cloud orbited around it.
When Sigma Dao Avatar entered Xiaomao's body, the golden core cracked as if something was about to hatch from it.
The crystal's shell slowly crumbled as a silhouette of a man emerged from the inside. It still had the same appearance and clothes as the Sigma Dao Avatar. However, he wasn't an illusion anymore.
The spirit of the golden core faintly smiled at Xiaomao. Then, it vanished and reappeared next to his master. Then, he reentered Xiaomao's body.
RUMBLE
This time, the entire pocket dantian trembled. An earthquake interrupted the duel, but Wei Huang widely grinned.
'Damn brat. Who asked you to break through during our fight? If I were your enemy, I could have killed you on the spot.'
Xiaomao couldn't hear Wei Huang anymore. A beam of golden rays shone from the eyes of Xiaomao and he sensed the changes in his dantian.
DING
<Your class has been upgraded. You are now a 7th-stage mortal cultivator. Some of your attributes and your lifespan have been increased.>
Before Xiaomao realized it, his cultivation base advanced to the 7th stage, and his level reached 700. Although some of the elements hadn't been improved yet, this breakthrough allowed Xiaomao to expand the ceiling of his growth – The element foundation stats could be increased more than 200,000.
In addition, the Sigma Element was strengthened. The domain ability's quality was enhanced.
DING
<The Dao Avatar Domain "Lone Wolf Guardian" is obsolete and has been canceled.>
<You have activated the Nascent Soul Domain – Lone Wolf Sentinel!>
<When you are fighting alone, reduce all incoming damage by 95 %. Increase all your combat stats by 150 %.>
<If you are fighting alone while protecting your allies, reflect 95% damages back to the attackers and increase all your combat stats, Max HP, Max MP, Life Essence, and Element Essence by an additional 150 %. You can negate one fatal attack once every hour.>
<If you are fighting alone while protecting your subordinates, you can self-resurrect once per battle. Upon resurrection, temporarily increase your combat stats by 500% and become immune to all attacks for one minute.>
<If you are fighting alone while protecting your family, all your attacks consume no Qi, MP, or HP. Your skills, spells, ultimate skills, and grand spells have no cooldown. Increase the casting speed by 100 %.>
<If your dog dies, instantly kill up to three immortals or mortals in your domain. The effect cannot be resisted, negated, canceled, destroyed, blocked, or overridden. You are invulnerable to all attacks for one minute.>
The effects got slightly better. The domain range expanded and covered a radius of one square kilometer. In addition, it didn't consume as much element Qi or Life Essence.
Xiaomao took a deep breath and gazed at his grandfather.
"I'm sorry, grandpa. I cheated."
Wei Huang snorted, 'It doesn't matter. After this session, increase my strength to the Soul Formation Realm. That way, we can have proper training!'
"Okay!"
Xiaomao was never afraid of challenges in his pocket dantian. He brandished his sword and charged against Wei Huang.
The Oni counter-charged and swung down his saber.
"NIHIL!"
.
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Ten minutes had passed in the real world. Xiaomao opened his eyes and checked how the warden was doing.
As usual, the scylla warden was so lazy that Xiaomao had the urge to escape the prison. However, seeing the level of the warden, Xiaomao abandoned the reckless plan.
'I finally beat Wei Huang!'
It was just one small victory, but Xiaomao was proud of his achievement.
Xiaomao let out a long sigh of relief, but he furrowed his brow, worrying about the next training sessions in the future. As the nascent soul domain abilities of Wei Huang were so strong that Xiaomao needed a cheat skill like Sigma Dao to overcome it, he couldn't imagine how strong a Soul Formation Domain was.
The 8th stage was the Soul Formation Realm, and the 9th stage was the Mahayana Realm. Each rank had its perk and unique power. Although the domain abilities might be inferior to Constellation Domains or Stellar Constellation Domains, they laid the foundation of the immortal stage, which was necessary to expand the ceiling of his growth.
A thorough preparation was required before Xiaomao reached level 999.
'Now, I understand why I need to slow down my leveling. Rushing levels and power-leveling isn't the way to go.'
Xiaomao deeply exhaled. He waved his hand and gathered several strands of element Qi in the prison toward him.
Because of the dense algae, seaweed, and moss underwater, there was plenty of Wood Element Qi. In addition, the crystal bars, which were used in place of steel bars, seemed to be producing a strange aura in the water. Xiaomao extracted the aura of the crystal and discovered that it contained Metal Element Qi.
Getting a hold of two new element Qi, Xiaomao was overjoyed. He ate both strands and closed his eyes, digesting the new element.
DING
<Congratulation! You have digested a strand of Metal Element Qi!>
<Your Metal Spiritual Roots have increased!>
<Congratulation! You have digested a strand of Wood Element Qi!>
<Your Wood Spiritual Roots have increased!>
The road to perfection was arduous and tedious, but Xiaomao persisted and preserved.
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= Border Palace =
The palace was located at the heart of the border city. It covered three square kilometers of the city as the palace was the gathering area for the local military and the intelligence department, which required secrecy and a large area.
After capturing the intruders, the guards reported the incident to the castellan of the border city.
The castellan was a five meters tall lizardman with a chubby belly. Although he was fat, his level was 5,200, which was on the strong side. He sat on a large chair, resting behind a long counter. On the counter, several orbs were tied down to plates and bowls as the castellan had been using them as a medium for long-ranged communication.
When the castellan heard that the guards captured a group of mermaids, his expression distorted.
"Did you check if there were any named mermaids or their backgrounds?"
"No, sir. All mermaids are nameless."
"What is the level of the strongest mermaid then?"
"I… I forgot, sir. It was urgent, so I didn't check."
"YOU FOOL!" The lizardman stood up, "What if one of the mermaids was actually the guardian of the sanctuary?! Have you forgotten that Lady Chang'e assigned a nameless undine champion there to guard that place?! What if she came here with a diplomat from a land country? You could have triggered a war!"
"W-What?!"
"Go and gather them here! Let me hear their story myself!"