CHAPTER 378: CHAPTER 378: BATTLE FOR POSITION (EIGHT)_1

Seeing this situation, Tian Zhaoquan, the Hall Master of the Affairs Hall, who sat high amidst the clouds, finally revealed a satisfied smile.

To forge this Ruyi Soul Stealing Needle, he had first gathered a vast quantity of high-class spiritual material and entrusted a skilled Forgemaster of his acquaintance to forge over ten flying needles, all of top-grade profound level. Then, he meticulously nurtured these pin-sized magic artifacts. After a long time, he selected the one with the most profound immortal charm for continued nurturing. Over many years, he finally nurtured it until it birthed an elementary gnosis, thereby promoting it to a Spiritual Artifact!

Even for him, parting with this item to Tian Zhiyu pained him considerably.

Fortunately, the Ruyi Soul Stealing Needle lived up to expectations; it finally pierced Shen Mo’s body. Now, all Tian Zhaoquan had to do was wait for Shen Mo to cry out his surrender!

Meanwhile, Chen Mengze and his daughter, standing on a distant mountaintop, wore expressions of deep concern. Their senses weren’t keen enough to detect the Ruyi Soul Stealing Needle’s presence, but from Shen Mo’s reactions as he deployed various techniques, they could infer a thing or two. Currently, Shen Mo clearly seemed to have been struck by some sort of attack. A technique that could completely elude their five senses and surpass their understanding had to be extraordinarily powerful!

Apart from Tian Zhaoquan, only the Golden Core Realm Supreme Elder and the three Peak Masters, who were on the cusp of the Golden Core Realm, had grasped the full situation from the beginning.

Tang Lv, the Peak Master of Rising Sun Peak, his previously gloomy expression now replaced with cheer, clapped his hands and laughed heartily.

"That Tian Family lad actually possesses such a potent treasure!"

"It seems your Stars Peak’s celestial seed won’t be snatching a core disciple seat today."

"Peak Master Zhou, in my opinion, you should advise that Shen Family lad to concede sooner rather than later..."

"Otherwise, if the spiritual needle damages his heart aperture, he could very well die!"

This time, it was Zhou Shili whose face turned sour. He cursed under his breath, Tian Zhaoquan is so shameless! How many Spiritual Artifacts does he even possess? To think he’d give one to his descendant. Utterly shameless!

Why was Zhou Shili so certain the Ruyi Soul Stealing Needle was a gift from Tian Zhaoquan, and not something Tian Zhiyu had gathered spiritual material for and forged himself? The reason was simple.

The entire Riverside Sect did not have a single Grade IV Forgemaster, making it impossible to directly forge even a low-grade Spiritual Artifact. Only by first forging a top-grade profound level magic artifact and then nurturing it for an extended period could that magic artifact possibly birth gnosis and be promoted to a low-grade Spiritual Artifact.

Even if Tian Zhiyu had started nurturing a top-grade magic artifact since the Body Tempering Realm, he couldn’t possibly have succeeded in producing a Spiritual Artifact by now!

The most probable explanation, naturally, was that his Tian Family patriarch, Tian Zhaoquan, had spared no expense to gift him this precious treasure to secure his core disciple seat.

"What’s wrong with Tian Zhaoquan favoring his own descendant?" Tang Lv retorted, his spirits high, continually goading Zhou Shili. "If you’re so dissatisfied, why didn’t you gift that Shen Family youngster a Spiritual Artifact earlier? Muttering and complaining now just makes you a laughingstock!"

Yuan Jing, the Peak Master of Bright Moon Peak, further enjoyed fanning the flames from the sidelines, seemingly eager to see things escalate.

For cultivators at their stage, advancing even half a step to form a Golden Core was as difficult as ascending to the heavens. The required cultivation resources, in both quantity and rarity, were astoundingly immense!

The prosperity, influence, and prestige of each peak were directly tied to their power, status, and say within the Riverside Sect. This, in turn, naturally affected their access to the sect’s resources and offerings. Therefore, the competition and rivalry among them were no less intense than those between the inner and outer disciples of the Riverside Sect; only the manifestations of this competition differed.

Historically, Rising Sun Peak had been the most influential, occupying five of the nine core disciple seats, and boasting the highest quantity and quality of elite disciples within its ranks. A significant number of Hall Masters and Elders also hailed from Rising Sun Peak. Consequently, Tang Lv, the Peak Master of Rising Sun Peak, naturally held a considerable advantage in the allocation of Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures!

It was no wonder that Peak Master Zhou Shili valued Shen Mo so immensely when he displayed such astonishing talent... yet, when it came to parting with a spiritual-level magic artifact for free, he was ultimately too reluctant.

As for Yuan Jing, he had only taken over as Peak Master of Bright Moon Peak after its previous Peak Master—who was also the patriarch of Shi Xiaoqian’s Shi Family—perished in the last demonic disaster. To this day, he had only been Peak Master for a little over twenty years; his seniority was still shallow. Thus, he harbored no ambitions of competing with Rising Sun Peak and was quite content to watch Zhou Shili and Tang Lv lock horns!

Besides them, many of the Qi Gathering Realm and Body Tempering Realm cultivators in the Riverside Sect, though not fully comprehending the situation, were no less fervent in their heated discussions.

"Senior Brother Shen is going to lose! His previous array of techniques was clearly to counter Senior Brother Tian’s bizarre offensive. Look at him now; he must have been hit!"

"What are you talking about? Senior Brother Shen clearly has the upper hand!"

"No, Senior Brother Tian is the one with the advantage. Look at his relaxed expression; he’s obviously about to win."

"..."

Tian Zhiyu naturally believed victory was in his grasp. But just then, a subtle sense of unease crept into his heart!

Why is my Mana being consumed so drastically? It’s as if the Soul Snatching Needle pierced a top-grade defensive magic artifact, and its Artifact Spirit is relentlessly consuming the True Yuan I’ve channeled into it to maintain its power! Could it be that this Junior Brother Shen’s physical body is so formidable that it’s comparable to a top-grade defensive magic artifact? Perhaps even tougher. This is simply... too terrifying!

These thoughts flashed through his mind like lightning.

Then, he looked up and saw Shen Mo’s expression, completely devoid of panic.

Tian Zhiyu hadn’t guessed wrong. Although the thought was rather appalling, it wasn’t impossible if one cultivated external magic to a degree surpassing ordinary imagination.

And as it happened, Shen Mo had cultivated two high-class external cultivation methods: the Dragon Elephant Blood Fiend Body and the Three-Heads Six-Arms True Immortal Technique.

He had not cultivated the former to Perfection due to the missing cultivation method for the ’Bloody Fiend Body’ Realm. The latter, however, he had already cultivated to the Master stage, and was not far from the realm of Extremely Perfection, designated as Epic by the system panel.

Li Zhong, an Elite Disciple of Stars Peak, had managed to temper his physique using the Heavenly Fire Body Refining Mantra to a state no weaker than a top-grade profound level magic artifact. Currently, Shen Mo’s physical strength far surpassed Li Zhong’s, and moreover, without the extreme negative side effects of the Heavenly Fire Body Refining Mantra.

Furthermore, the Three-Heads Six-Arms True Immortal Technique possessed another miraculous effect. This was its ability to continuously transform blood essence primality into new flesh, blood, sinews, and bones—an effect even more potent than a Grade III Flesh Bone Pill!

The moment the Ruyi Soul Stealing Needle entered his body, Shen Mo utilized the True Immortal Magic to compel his blood essence primality to transform into layer upon layer of hardened bone. These formed around the needle-shaped Spiritual Artifact, akin to a series of indestructible bone prisons.

If one were to observe closely, they would notice slight protrusions in the flesh and blood from Shen Mo’s left arm to his heart aperture. These were all the newly formed bones, arrayed to imprison the Ruyi Soul Stealing Needle.

Of course, if this Spiritual Artifact were at its full strength, mere hardened bone could not withstand its piercing properties. But this Spiritual Artifact had previously had a third of its body severed by Shen Mo. That it could still be activated now was already remarkable.

To expect it to break through the multiple bone barriers and pierce his vital heart aperture was, in the end, mere wishful thinking!