Chapter 38: Emulating the Immortal King Wushang

The Shrouding the Heavens World.

After harvesting a massive amount of the most devout power of faith, Qin Sheng underwent a certain divine sublimation on the Douluo Continent, gaining a brand-new understanding of certain aspects of that world.

"Through this period of accumulation and study, combined with this recent harvest, the matter of 'Shrouding the Heavens-izing' soul skills and secret methods has finally come into view."

Qin Sheng felt a surge of joy in his heart, a sense of satisfaction akin to a bountiful harvest.

Some soul skills in the Douluo Continent possessed extremely heaven-defying effects.

For instance, "Void" could immunize the user against all non-energy physical attacks and weaken any energy attack by fifty percent.

Then there was Tang San's "Indeterminate Wind and Waves," an absolute control divine skill; once cast, it could control an enemy for several seconds with one hundred percent certainty.

These soul skills could be described as rule-based skills, subtly manipulating the laws of heaven and earth.

Qin Sheng naturally knew that the power levels of the Douluo world were far inferior to those of Shrouding the Heavens, and these soul skills had their own limits; they were not omnipotent and had to rely on the rules of the Douluo world to take effect.

However, what he intended to do was never to copy them blindly, but rather to use these soul skills as blueprints—extracting the essence, discarding the dross, and drawing inspiration and direction from them.

The Shrouding the Heavens Method, at its core, was about "planting the Dao within oneself." Qin Sheng could also use the "characteristics" of other worlds as his seeds to reap his own fruits.

"Using the principles of soul skills as a foundation and combining them with my own insights into the Great Dao, I have created the 'Law Secret Runes' belonging to the Shrouding the Heavens world. Now, let's test if they work."

Mobilizing his magic power, Qin Sheng began to engrave the Law Secret Runes onto his body, starting with his left arm.

As one mysterious and varied rune after another was branded upon him, Qin Sheng's physical body felt the pressure.

The laws of heaven and earth were drawn by these runes and bestowed upon his body, clashing with his physical form to create a localized battlefield.

*Bang!*

Suddenly, Qin Sheng's arm exploded. He frowned slightly.

"There is an issue with the 58th rune; I should increase its load-bearing capacity."

With flesh and blood surging, his injuries healed, and Qin Sheng continued his attempts.

*Bang!*

"After modifying the 58th rune, some chain reactions occurred. I should..."

He failed many times, but the vitality of a Shrouding the Heavens cultivator was extremely tenacious; flesh and blood loss meant little to someone in the Four Extremities Realm.

As long as there was sufficient essence of heaven and earth and his origin remained intact, many injuries could be easily recovered.

A day later, Qin Sheng successfully engraved the runes onto his left arm. They connected into a single whole, possessing a natural Daoist charm.

Qin Sheng attacked his left arm with magic power, carefully perceiving every change that occurred upon impact.

A moment later.

"Ha, I did it!" Qin Sheng was overjoyed.

When the magic power attack struck his arm just now, its potency was reduced by about fifty percent!

This meant that Qin Sheng's years of research were viable!

"As expected, the collision of systems and the accumulation of knowledge from the myriad worlds spark the flames of wisdom, bringing me infinite benefits!" Qin Sheng was invigorated.

The attitude Qin Sheng had always maintained was

Every world has value, and the civilizations they carry are treasures. What he needed to do was to absorb the essence of the heavens to nourish himself.

Perhaps some worlds were weak, but certain unique elements within them could provide inspiration and direction, facilitating the enlightenment from zero to one.

Even a mundane world could occasionally serve the purpose of "tempering the heart."

"The effect of this first set of Law Secret Runes is to reduce the enemy's magic power damage. Let's call it..."

After a moment of thought, he named it

"The Wushang Secret Runes!"

"Before the Mythical Era, there was an Unyielding King named Wushang in the Foreign Realms. He could immunize himself against the divine abilities and magic power damage of his opponents, making him an incredibly powerful existence even among Immortal Kings."

The Shrouding the Heavens world already had precedents proving that special abilities like damage reduction and damage amplification existed; this was not merely Qin Sheng's wild imagination.

"My choice to prioritize the creation of the Wushang Secret Runes was also influenced by him," Qin Sheng thought longingly.

"Although this set of runes can currently only reduce the magic power damage of Four Extremities cultivators by fifty percent, which is far from achieving immunity..."

"But as long as my insights into the Great Dao continue to improve and I constantly refine the runes, perhaps one day I will surpass the Unyielding King Wushang."

It was a pity that the Unyielding King Wushang had already been slapped to death by Shi Hao; otherwise, when that day arrived, Qin Sheng would surely make him realize who the true "Wushang" (unharmed/undying) really was!

"However, there is a problem. Every time an attack is endured, the Wushang Secret Runes will suffer wear and tear, and their effectiveness will gradually decrease until they are completely extinguished. When that happens, they will have to be re-engraved."

Qin Sheng began to look for flaws to see how he could improve his runes.

"Currently, the Wushang Secret Runes are engraved with my magic power. Magic power will eventually be consumed and cannot last forever. If I use something else to engrave the runes, perhaps I can stabilize them and increase the damage reduction magnitude."

Qin Sheng fell into deep thought. What would be the best material for engraving runes?

"First, I'll try engraving the other runes I've created to see if they work."

Qin Sheng had currently created a total of three sets of runes: those that reduced magic power damage, primordial spirit damage, and pure physical damage.

As for others, such as absolute control or immunity to death, he could use them in the Douluo Continent, but he had no clue yet how to "Shrouding the Heavens-ize" them.

Reducing damage and boosting combat power could be considered the most accessible fields.

Although the Shrouding the Heavens world itself possessed these two types of secret methods, that did not mean Qin Sheng's research was redundant.

The secret methods of the Shrouding the Heavens world were active skills; the runes Qin Sheng created were passive skills. The significance was entirely different.

With the experience gained from engraving the first part of the Wushang Secret Runes, Qin Sheng's attempts with the other two sets went smoothly. Through a process of error correction and modification, he successfully engraved them quickly.

The damage reduction ratio was similar to the first set, which was the current limit of what Qin Sheng could achieve.

But the same problem remained: whether engraving with magic power, divine sense, or life essence, none could make them permanent; they would suffer wear after being attacked.

If this problem wasn't solved, it would lead to a scenario where the runes might suddenly vanish during a future battle.

"In this world, aside from Undying Divine Medicines, perhaps only Immortal Gold can be considered immortal."

But using those two things to engrave runes...

Qin Sheng shook his head just thinking about it.

It wasn't that those two things were bad, but rather that Qin Sheng was too poor.

"If I can become a Saint, the Laws of the Saintly Dao should also be able to achieve the effect of immortality, but that is still a bit far off for me."

In fact, when you are in a high-level world, as long as you haven't reached a sufficiently high realm, it is actually better to follow the established cultivation methods and secret techniques of your predecessors step-by-step rather than worrying about self-creation.

Building a solid foundation first and then standing on the shoulders of predecessors to contemplate one's own path once reaching a sufficient height would be a better choice.

But Qin Sheng was somewhat special and could not be viewed by conventional logic.

He existed in multiple worlds simultaneously, and more than one of his bodies was in a bottleneck or accumulation phase. In such a situation, researching other things was actually a better choice.

Not only would it not delay his cultivation in the Shrouding the Heavens world, but he could also improve his comprehension through research.

The brain is something that gets sharper the more you use it.

"The first step is always the hardest. I've achieved the first step, so there's no reason the rest should stop me. I'll take it slow."

Qin Sheng sensed the Infinite Land. Although it was somewhat unethical, he did indeed look forward to the possibility of a new version of himself from a higher world appearing again; perhaps that would bring him even greater harvests.

*Power, I command you to appear!*

*Cheat, I command you to activate!*