I Cheated While Cultivating

The dozen men in black had vanished without a trace.

Zhou Heng still stood there, a smile on his face, his eyes teasingly fixed on Cao Guishan. He chuckled, “What were you trying to do just now, kill me?”

Silence, utter silence.

Cao Guishan stared dumbfounded at Zhou Heng, sniffing the bloody scent in the rain. He had realized what had just happened and suddenly fear flashed across his eyes.

“Turning breath into wind! Martial Saint! You, you’re actually a Martial Saint?! No, even a Martial Saint doesn’t possess such a physique!” His body trembled, he screamed in sheer terror, and simultaneously, he turned on his heels and ran, trying to escape into the dense woods.

“You’re running away?” Zhou Heng shook his head, raised his right hand, and flicked a finger. Immediately, a sonic boom rang out in the void, creating an invisible wind blade that cleaved through the air and struck Cao Guishan’s neck.

A head flew into the sky as blood spurted from the severed neck like a fountain, but the body maintained its forward momentum, running several paces before collapsing to the ground with a thud.

Cao Guishan’s head rolled to a stop right beside Li Chengyu’s family.

At this moment, the family was completely dumbfounded, staring blankly at Zhou Heng, continuously asking themselves if they were seeing illusions or experiencing death-induced hallucinations, not even noticing the head of Cao Guishan beside them.

It took a good while before Li Chengyu’s family regained their senses and fully understood what had happened.

They had been saved!

A self-proclaimed passing traveler, a Martial Saint-level powerhouse had saved their family?

Li Chengyu’s mind raced with numerous thoughts.

He tried to stand up and express his thanks.

But during the previous escape, he had already reached the end of his tether; letting alone standing up to express his thanks, he found it difficult to even move a finger or open his mouth to speak.

At this point, Li Chengyu had a realization; he was probably not long for this world.

“Many, many thanks to my benefactor,” Li Chengyu managed to open his mouth with all his might and expressed his thanks to Zhou Heng while lying on the ground.

“Thank you, benefactor.” The young woman’s condition was evidently better; she had managed to get up and bowed in deep gratitude to Zhou Heng.

“Thank you, Benefactor Brother!” The little girl Ning’an also expressed her thanks.

After that, the two of them tried to help Li Chengyu up.

But Li Chengyu shook his head, signaling them not to do so. He looked at Zhou Heng, his complexion suddenly becoming rosy, and said, “My benefactor, we were bound to die today. Thanks to your help, my wife and daughter may preserve their lives.

“I, I am probably not long for this world, but may I implore you to help us once more? If you agree, I will give you all the treasures I have accumulated over my lifetime, as long as you escort them to…”

“Father!” The little girl Ning’an burst into tears when she heard this. “No, Father, don’t say such things!”

“Husband…” The young woman also cried profusely, her expression one of deep sorrow. She could sense that her husband’s physical condition likely wouldn’t last through the night.

“…” Zhou Heng raised his hand to his temple, shook his head slightly, and said with a smile, “Better that you escort them yourself. I really don’t have the spare time for this.”

As he spoke, he pointed his finger at Li Chengyu. A brilliant emerald glow, as bright as the stars themselves, shot from his fingertip and entered Li Chengyu’s body.

“What, what is this?!”

At the sight, Li Chengyu’s pupils suddenly contracted as if he had witnessed something incredible, and his facial expression became extremely animated.

There was shock, joy, doubt… a mix of expressions all mingling together, causing his facial muscles to falter.

“Star, star magic?!” The young woman was also astounded, staring blankly at the radiance enveloping her husband.

“So magical!” Ning’an’s eyes lit up.

She found that under the cover of the emerald light, the numerous wounds covering her father were rapidly healing, and his flush of rejuvenation gradually returned to normal.

A moment later, as the emerald glow dissipated, Li Chengyu was utterly shocked to find himself completely unharmed, full of energy, and in high spirits, with no trace of his previous exhaustion.

“Someone can still wield such star magic now, capable of completely restoring a dying man like me!” Li Chengyu was startled as he turned toward Zhou Heng, uncertainly asking, “You, who are you among the Star Monarchs?”

Since the descent of the calamitous star three years ago, the Star Realm had become abnormal. Star Officers from Ninth Grade to Fourth Rank could no longer call upon the power of the Star Realm, unable to directly mobilize star energy, and their strength plummeted immensely. Even Star Monarchs of the Upper Third Rank had greatly diminished powers; their star magic was nowhere near as potent as before.

In Li Chengyu’s eyes, the healing effect of the star magic witnessed just now was so powerful that even when the Star Realm was still normal, it wasn’t something ordinary Star Officers could perform. At the least, it had to be high-ranking Star Officers of the Fifth or Fourth Rank.

Now, with the Star Realm being in disarray, performing such a level of star magic had become even more challenging. Yet this young man had performed it effortlessly; only a Star Monarch could achieve this.

At this thought, Li Chengyu was taken aback by his own conjecture.

The “passerby” before him clearly looked to be only in his late teens, still a youth—how could he be a Star Monarch of the Upper Third Rank!

Nobody had ever heard of such a young Star Monarch in this world.

But if not a Star Monarch, who else could it be?

Martial Artists certainly did not possess such miraculous technique capabilities.

For a moment, Li Chengyu was plunged into confusion.

“Star Monarch?” Zhou Heng murmured, then added, “Let’s first leave this forest and find a place to take shelter from the rain. I have some questions for you.”

…

Since Zhou Heng had very limited information about this world, there weren’t many choices when he descended through the star gate.

He could only choose a general terrain.

For instance, he could choose mountains, rivers, basins, plateaus and so on, at most adding some restrictions like no signs of forbidden formations; the randomness of his descent was quite strong.

Thus, Zhou Heng descended into a mountain forest.

After his arrival, he did not hurry to leave but first found a cave to quietly contemplate the natural laws of this world and conform his Five Virtue Dharma Phase to it.

Three days passed, and Zhou Heng had already recovered seventy percent of his strength.

The recovery of his strength also incited a change in the Qi of heaven and earth, causing heavy rainfall throughout the entire mountain area.

Zhou Heng, having regained a fair amount of strength, was in high spirits; he planned to hunt some wild game for a meal. He intended to leave the mountain the next morning to inquire about this world but did not expect to encounter Li Chengyu’s family being pursued.

In fact, Zhou Heng had already arrived at the scene when Li Chengyu fell to the ground, but he did not come out immediately because he could not be sure whether Li Chengyu was friend or foe.

Only after Cao Guishan and others arrived did he decide to make a move.

On one hand, Li Chengyu seemed to be the party suffering persecution, and Ning’an was quite adorable, worthy of being saved.

On the other hand, he learned through Cao Guishan that Li Chengyu might be a Prince, which meant that he should know a lot about this world—information Zhou Heng lacked.

Therefore, Zhou Heng brought Li Chengyu and his family to the cave where he had been recuperating and asked them about the general situation of this world.

Although he had already made a rough guess about the cultivation paths of this world when sensing the natural laws with his Dharma Phase, he needed to ask someone to confirm his speculation.

Li Chengyu was extremely grateful to his life-saving benefactor, Zhou Heng. He answered Zhou Heng’s inquiries without reservation, providing him with a wealth of information.

Firstly, there was Li Chengyu’s identity.

He was a Prince of the Da Wei Empire, with many accomplishments to his name and once an Upper Fourth Rank Star Officer in the Star Palace, possessing powerful strength. Now framed by the Crown Prince, he was forced to flee with his wife and daughter.

Additionally, there were the two paths of cultivation in this world—one was the Martial Path, and the other was Star Arts.

The Martial Path naturally involved cultivating one’s own bodily strength, enhancing power and speed, with the aim of achieving a level of might that transcends the ordinary—this is also the path of cultivation found in the majority of worlds.

However, due to the world rules’ constraints, the influence of spirit power on reality was minuscule, resulting in one condition—

Even if a Martial Artist had cultivated to the normal limits of the human body and had ample spirit power, they would be unable to break through the human limits, unable to build the bridge between heaven and earth to establish natural laws.

This means that the limit of the human body in this world is equivalent to the level of a Seventh Rank Warrior in Da Qi.

Of course, due to a long legacy of tradition, martial artists have found some ways out, and thus there arose various sects like the Buddha Sect and Taoism. These sects possess secret techniques that can break through the limits of the human body and reach the realm of a Martial Saint.

But even a Martial Saint isn’t all that powerful; they simply have more formidable vigor and body, and cannot harness the power of heaven and earth. Essentially, they are still mortal.

If discussing solely the Martial Path, this world’s hierarchy wouldn’t be considered powerful.

However, aside from the Martial Path, there is another way in this world, and that is the path of star arts.

According to Li Chengyu, the path of star arts originates from the ancient, barbaric era.

Our forebears worshipped heaven and earth and received the favor of the stars, drawing the attention of the thirty-six Heavenly Fiend Star Gods and the seventy-two Earthly Fiend Star Gods, a total of one hundred and eight Star Gods.

As long as the rituals were proper and gained the recognition of the Star Gods, one could communicate with the Star Realm to obtain star power, breaking through the limits of mortals and possessing inconceivable divine power.

To this day, the path of star arts has become quite refined.

One only needs a rudimentary mastery of the Martial Path to hold rituals according to the guidance of the Star Palace. If the rituals are successful and one gains the protection of a Star God, they will possess strength far beyond that of a common martial artist.

However, the conditions for conducting such rituals are very strict, and the materials required are extremely rare, affordable only by the houses of the powerful and some wealthy families.

Since these rituals are not guaranteed to succeed and have a chance of failure, with only one opportunity available—if it fails, there’s no second chance—it results in the scarcity of Star Officers.

Having overwhelming strength, in addition to their rarity and generally noble status, such a group often becomes an elite class that stands above even the emperors of empires. Thus, a Star Palace that surpasses the authority of imperial rulers emerged.

The Star Palace assigns ranks to star art practitioners, dividing them from low to high from Ninth Grade to First Rank, with those from Upper Third Rank, Second Rank, and First Rank being called Star Monarchs, and the rest referred to as Star Officers.

A Seventh Rank Star Officer can overpower a Martial Saint at the pinnacle of the Martial Path. At the level of a Sixth Rank Star Officer, one can fly and escape into the heavens, entering and exiting the azure void, and even intertwine the authority of Star Gods at higher levels, akin to a Star God descending to the world, possessing vast divine power.

But three years ago, all this changed.

An ominous red star descended, the Emperor Star shifted, celestial patterns were thrown into chaos, and the Second Rank Star Monarch of the Heaven’s Observatory died an abrupt death. The Lord of the Star Palace and three First Rank Star Monarchs disappeared.

The Star Realm also became abnormal. Star Officers below the Upper Third Rank lost contact with the Star Realm overnight and could no longer draw upon star power. Only a few remaining Star Monarchs could still manipulate star power to limitedly use some mid and lower-grade star arts.

But, since there were so few Star Monarchs and their strength was greatly diminished, although they were able to suppress other forces, which still dared not openly challenge them, some have begun to settle scores with certain Star Officers they previously didn’t dare to touch, all behind the scenes.

Li Chengyu was among them.

“One hundred and eight Star Gods, thirty-six Heavenly Fiend Stars, seventy-two Earthly Fiend Stars…” Zhou Heng’s gaze grew intense. There were many familiar things in the information revealed by Li Chengyu. “Now that the Star Palace is in decline, does that mean the martial artists who were previously oppressed are getting restless?”

“Exactly,” Li Chengyu nodded.

“Have you heard of any remarkable martial artists emerging recently?” Zhou Heng tried to gather information about Cheng Jianjian and Qi Rui, as the two of them had arrived here some time ago.

“Indeed, some formidable martial artists have appeared recently. Most of them come from Taoism or the Buddha Sect, with unique secret techniques that barely allow them to break through the limits of mortals and reach the realm of a Martial Saint.”

While speaking, Li Chengyu seemed to ponder and then, seemingly recalling something, he added, “Right, there’s one more, though I’m not sure she counts as a martial artist. Some time ago, I heard that the Star Palace found the reincarnation of Gou Chen, the Heavenly Emperor, leader of all the stars—a young woman.

“This woman isn’t only exceptionally skilled in star arts but also possesses many strange and secret treasures. Most importantly, her martial arts are extraordinarily advanced. It is said that she even left a Star Monarch severely injured using martial arts techniques.”