Published: March 3, 2025
Liu Yu narrowed his eyes, his expression grave, not daring to be the slightest bit careless.
After his body refinement reached the late fourth stage, his qi refinement was still stuck at the late stage bottleneck, but his spirit refinement was advancing by leaps and bounds.
Having fought against cultivators from the Supreme Void Palace and the Dark Heaven Demon Lord, Liu Yu gained a clearer understanding of his own strength.
After the body refinement upgrade, ordinary great cultivators and demonic kings posed no threat to him in direct confrontation.
Of course, the same could not be said for the Dark Heaven Demon Lord, who could create significant trouble with pre-set formations and ambushes, and might even be dangerous.
With his simultaneous cultivation in three areas, each with considerable accomplishments, he felt confident even when facing pinnacle true lords and demonic kings.
However, this did not include the Black Flood Dragon King.
This demon's strength was vaguely above that of other pinnacle true lords and demonic kings.
Based on his observations and estimates, it was likely that the Black Flood Dragon King was equally profound in qi refinement, body refinement, and spirit refinement. Liu Yu asked himself if, aside from spirit refinement, he was still quite behind in the other two aspects.
Thinking of this, he touched the "ordinary longsword" at his waist. His strength had increased rapidly over the years, and his mastery of the "Sword of Ruin" had become increasingly comprehensive, enabling him to unleash greater power.
According to his private experiments in the Immortal Abode, the current strike from the spiritual treasure could easily break through the fifth stage level, demonstrating the power of the later stages of divine transformation.
If all went well, killing any fourth stage creature would be no problem. With the Sword of Ruin, Liu Yu could use it twice with ease, making it his greatest trump card for this journey.
However, relying solely on this to contend with divine transformation cultivators was still wishful thinking.
In his estimate, he could at most injure a divine transformation early-stage cultivator, buying himself more time to escape.
There was no other way; the gap between yuan ying and divine transformation was simply too immense. The fundamental difference in life essence could not be bridged by just one spiritual treasure.
However, if Liu Yu could elevate to the late yuan ying stage, perhaps there would be some changes!
"Relying on my own substantial accumulation, perhaps after progressing to the late yuan ying stage, I could barely use the Sword of Ruin for a short time and exert a small portion of its power," he thought to himself.
With the assistance of the Immortal Abode, Liu Yu's accumulation was far greater than that of ordinary cultivators, and his strength consistently exceeded that of others at the same level.
With simultaneous cultivation in three areas, perhaps when he reached the late yuan ying stage, he could employ a few self-harming secret techniques to barely unleash the spiritual treasure for a short time.
Of course, he habitually concealed a few trump cards.
In normal circumstances, his strength was slightly above that of an ordinary great cultivator.
In urgent moments, he could display the combat power of a peak yuan ying.
If his opponent truly treated him as a peak fourth stage opponent, Liu Yu could still bring out strength comparable to a peak true lord or a peak demonic king, giving his opponent a big surprise.
Finally, there was the Sword of Ruin, a trump card that would leave no survivors when used.
Back to the main point.
Although their team had three great cultivators, at this moment in the canyon where strong ones gathered, they could only rank in the upper middle tier, far from being among the top.
In this canyon, forming strong alliances was the mainstream. Among many groups, those with pinnacle true lords or pinnacle demonic kings undoubtedly ranked in the first tier.