Heaven's Devourer

His conjecture was different from Ming Long's.

He remarked, "I think that it has nothing to do with the number of repetitions. If this were indeed the case, it wouldn't be a good criteria for judgment at all." 

Ming Long did not agree completely and asked, "What do you think the trick is then?"

Wu Yu took a second to think back before replying, "The most obvious difference between the Time Control Pagoda and other Ancient Pagodas of Time is that the level of the puppet you challenge alters the amount of time you have. Back when I first challenged a level five, this mysterious door did not budge at all. However, now that I've successfully defeated a level six, a small gap appeared. Does this imply a larger opening will appear if I defeat a level seven? Finally, if I'm able to surpass a level eight, does that mean that there will be an opening large enough for me to enter?"

All in all, the Time Control Pagoda most likely placed a heavier emphasis on the level of the challenge rather than the number of attempts.

Ming Long suddenly realized that this had to be true. Despite not being the first to come to this conclusion, she quibbled, "To be honest, I also came to the same conclusion. Ha ha, I guess my wit is still as piercing as ice and snow..."

"You sure are thick-skinned.”

"You dare speak to your Granny in such a tone?" Ming Long glared.

"I wouldn't dare." Wu Yu gazed over at the door panels. He instantly remembered the intense attraction he felt from the mysterious object that lay beyond, despite not knowing what it was at all.

"How do you intend to open these doors?" Ming Long asked.

"There will be more chances to come. Once I've challenged a level seven, I'll naturally get my answer. If things really turn out as I've described, that would mean that my guess was right. However, I reckon that in order to fully activate this set of doors, I'll probably have to surpass level eight. That's the limit after all."

Ming Long rolled her eyes and replied, "Your head still seems to be lost in the clouds. Have you already forgotten how hard-fought your victory just now was? I reckon you don't have the confidence to take on a black spirit design, so a white spirit design would undoubtedly be out of the question as well. Furthermore, if you come across the chance to progress in cultivation level, would you stifle your development just for this set of doors?"

Wu Yu replied, "I can't be too sure about that yet. By my estimates, however, it will be really difficult for me to enter the sixth tier Violent Kingdom of the Inner Sea within these 600 days. I'll just focus on working hard and we'll see how things go."

If Wu Yu's guess was right. Among countless others, there was no one but him who had a chance of activating this mysterious door. Even Prince Le could not do it. He had definitely made several attempts.

The 600 days were still the most important thing here.

"I previously gave up the opportunity to cultivate a new mystique due to the Sun Vessel. If I have spare time left, I guess I can always cultivate a new mystique, right?" Wu Yu asked. 

Ming Long gave a mocking laugh and replied, "How pathetic. After receiving some gifts from Great Aunt here, your skin has become thicker than ever before. Do you think that just because I know something I'll pass it on to you?"

"I'm not demanding a new dao technique from you. I just want a mystique from the Great Sage, Heaven's Equal, that's all," Wu Yu replied.

"That belongs to me as well. Without me, do you think it'd be that easy for you to request these things from the Ruyi Jingu Bang instead?" Ming Long unyieldingly replied.

She just wanted to annoy Wu Yu. They had known each other for such a long time, so Wu Yu was already used to her antics. At this time, all he could do was smile and curry favor with her. "Great Aunt, just give the mystique to me, alright? Once your humble servant here becomes an immortal, I'll allow you to gain nirvana and be reincarnated. I'll even be at your beck and call and pledge my loyalty to you forever. How about that?"

"That's more like it. I'm only willing to pass down my treasured legacy to you because you're so sensible. Back then, countless bastards tried to trade riches, enough to build a nation, for my secrets, yet I did not heed them at all." This mischievous child still wet behind the ears kept calling herself “Granny” and “Old Mother” before Wu Yu's eyes. This was indeed a strange sight…

Wu Yu had 600 days to spare in the Time Control Pagoda, so he had the luxury of progressing at a measured pace. This completely differed from the tense atmosphere weighing down on him back at the Taigu Immortal Path. In particular, the issue with the Heaven Devouring Evil Lord had more or less been settled. Even if he were to head to the Yan Huang Ancient Country, it was not guaranteed that he would be performing as well as he was now.

Ming Long floated in midair before him and began to guide him in his cultivation of the third mystique beyond Unshackled Doppelganger and the Eyes of Fire and Gold.

"The truth is, I've only managed to attain the third tier of this mystique. I only have the spiritual art pertaining to the first three tiers of it. From the third tier onwards, you'll have to defer to the Ruyi Jingu Bang for guidance instead. Obtaining something from the Ruyi Jingu Bang is no easy task. Back then, I..."

Ming Long went off a long spiel once again. She described how hard she worked back then and her great deal of suffering. As she emphasized how difficult it was for her, she continually hinted for Wu Yu to be filial to her in the times to come. This speech of hers went on for quite awhile.

She finally reached the key point.

"The Great Sage, Heaven's Equal's Four Great Heaven Dao Mystiques are able to wreck the heavens unrivaled! Unshackled Doppelganger's countless body doubles allow one to take on millions of celestial troops and generals alone! The Eyes of Fire and Gold allow one to witness the present, past, and future and incinerate all demons. The third mystique is more marvelous than these two. It is known as the Lawful Embodiment of Heaven and Earth.”

"Why is it called that?"

"At the pinnacle of its power, the Lawful Embodiment of Heaven and Earth mystique is rumored to allow one to grow to a height of 1,000 zhang. Your head will be the size of Mount Tai and your waist will span an entire mountain range. Lightning will surge from your eyes and a basin of blood will be your mouth as your teeth turn into the sharpest of halberds! I'm not too clear on the specific details. However, from the first three tiers that I've cultivated, huge transformations are indeed possible!

"To summarize things, this is a size-shifting mystique that allows you to grow or shrink your physical form. Upon the successful cultivation of the first tier, you can roughly double your height, and you can also shrink to about half your height as well. If you grow to your limit, your corporeal strength will double as well! Of course, the drawback is that your speed will be halved! As you'd expect, if you shrink to your limit instead, you corporeal strength will halve but your speed will double! Throughout this entire process, your Violet Kingdom Primordial Energy will remain unchanged. In other words, the Lawful Embodiment of Heaven and Earth's transformations only affects your corporeal body. It is completely independent of your Violet Kingdom Primordial Energy."

Wu Yu could not really believe what he was hearing. He wasn't a demon, so there was no way for him to change his physical form. At most, the Immortal Ape Transformation gave him a slight boost in terms of strength and height, yet this Lawful Embodiment of Heaven and Earth supposedly let him grow and shrink at will? The highest he could reach was one zhang, and the smallest was three Chi?[1]

The smallest he could shrink to with the first tier would be to about Ming Long's current size. If such a change were indeed possible, the weight of one's flesh and blood would increase four or even five fold if one decided to double their original size instead. This would result in a change in physique that spanned four or five fold! 

While growing would slow you down, the key thing was that your strength would be doubled! Furthermore, the strength behind each attack would not merely be the fleeting strength of the Violent Art.

Shrinking had its benefits as well. Firstly, one would become extremely nimble, and secondly, one's speed would be violently quick!

The ability to freely grow and shrink was truly remarkable. Only a mystique of the Great Sage, Heaven's Equal could achieve such unfathomable effects!

Ming Long was not done yet. She continued, "If you reach the second tier, the maximum height you can reach is double that of the first tier. In other words you'll be quadruple your original height. In terms of corporeal strength, you'll be able to erupt with three times your original strength! Your speed will be slightly lower than that of the first tier. It'll be around a third less than the first tier. When you shrink, the smallest you can go in the second tier would be half that of the first tier. In other words, you'll be able to reach a quarter of your current height. When this happens, your speed will triple from the first tier, but your strength will decrease by a third of the first tier as well. There will always be a trade-off between strength and speed."

"How about the third tier?" Wu Yu was silently keeping track of these numbers.

From the information presented so far, the Lawful Embodiment of Heaven and Earth seemed to be quite versatile in its applications. In the heat of battle, this mystique would enable one to adapt their corporeal strength and speed to suit their needs specific to every moment. The modifiers to strength and speed were not even that set in stone, since the strength and speed changes would only affect the corporeal body. Violet Kingdom Primordial Energy would play a part in determining one's prowess as well. For example, just because Wu Yu's corporeal strength tripled, it would not necessarily mean that his attacking abilities were merely three times stronger than before, because his Violet Kingdom Primordial Energy would remain unchanged by this multiplier.

"For the third tier, the maximum height is simply double that of the second tier, or four times that of the first tier. In other words, it'll be eight times your original height! Eight times your height would approximately exceed four zhang. You'll be comparable to a huge beast then. The minimum height in this tier would be an eighth of your original. You won't even be a single chi tall and will be around the size of a pocket doll. How cute. It will be difficult for others to notice you. Once you eventually reach this stage, you'll discover how interesting this ability really is. As for your changes in physical attributes, they will double from the previous tier again. For instance, your increase in corporeal strength due to growing will now result in four times your original strength. At the same time, the decrease in speed is still not that significant - you'll once again drop by about one-third of the previous tier’s speed. Similarly, once you shrink, your strength will be a quarter of your original. In terms of speed, the changes will no longer be that significant, but it'll still exceed three times your original speed. Based on my best guess, when you attain the fourth or fifth tier, your physique's growing or shrinking capabilities will increase exponentially, up to perhaps 16-fold. Your strength will increase or decrease accordingly, whereas your speed will remain within the range of a third and three times your original without as many changes. Of course, this is merely conjecture on my part. I don't actually know what will happen after the fourth tier."

After the third tier, the change in speed would be negligible, while the change in size and strength would still continue to change drastically. This applied to size in particular - it seemed like her claim of reaching up to 10,000 zhang may not be that impossible after all.

This was due to the fact that the maximum height attainable was double that of the previous tier rather than an increment that used Wu Yu's original height as a benchmark.

2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64. If his height increased exponentially like this, it would be easy for him to attain a height of over 10,000 zhang.

Even if his corporeal strength did not increase at the same exponential rate, his strength would increase by at least 100% of his original for each tier up to the third. This was already quite a terrifying increase. In comparison to the Lawful Embodiment of Heaven and Earth, the Violent Art did not seem like it was worth much at all.

As such, Wu Yu was naturally looking forward to cultivating this mystique.

"Within these 600 days, I will cultivate at least the first tier! When the time comes, I'll be able to increase my height up to twofold or shrink to up to half my size! My strength can double, and so can my speed! Such wondrous transformations will allow me to undergo endless changes in the heat of battle!"

Wu Yu really had to acknowledge that the Great Sage, Heaven's Equal's mystique was undeniably fantastic!

After acquiring the cultivation spiritual art for the first three tiers of this mystique from Ming Long, Wu Yu started to calm his thoughts down. At least for the initial phase of cultivation, he focused all his energy towards the cultivation of this mystique. He completely ignored the cultivation of his cultivation level and other dao techniques for now.

Even the other two mystiques took a back seat for the moment.

As of now, his Unshackled Doppelganger had 1,000 body doubles and his Eyes of Fire and Gold had already attained the third tier's Sun Vessel! He wanted to quickly cultivate the Lawful Embodiment of Heaven and Earth to the third tier as soon as possible too.

1. TL Note: 1 zhang is 3.58 metres, or 11 feet 9 inches. 10 chi make up 1 zhang