Chapter 568 - 343: Stern Refusal
For a time, Zou Feng completely gave up on cultivating in the Demon Suppression Tower.
Instead, he holed himself up in the Hall of Combat, relentlessly challenging Liu Chenyu’s Mind Body.
To get the most out of each challenge, he would intentionally prolong every fight.
Even when he could have secured a swift victory, Zou Feng would deliberately hold back to better acclimate himself to Liu Chenyu’s illusions and Charm Technique.
After more than ten days of this, Zou Feng had thoroughly analyzed every aspect of Liu Chenyu as she was in the Spiritual Energy Realm.
He also developed a considerable immunity to her illusions and Charm Technique.
For instance, even when Liu Chenyu cast an illusion of herself completely bared before him, Zou Feng remained utterly calm and unfazed.
Through this repeated training, he could even instantly enter a "sage-like state" to nullify her charms.
Of course, this sage-like state not only resisted charms but also sharpened his focus and granted him extreme resistance to illusions.
Zou Feng himself had never expected to unlock a new combat state through his repeated, grueling battles with Liu Chenyu’s Mind Body.
Although this sage-like state could currently only resist charms and illusions, with time, it might allow him to enter a powerful state devoid of all emotion, operating with the precision of a machine...
On this day, Zou Feng easily defeated Liu Chenyu’s Mind Body. He lifted it by the neck with one hand and ended the fight with a single Poisonous Bite.
Once he had adapted to her charms and illusions, Liu Chenyu’s strength in other areas was no longer top-tier.
He had to admit, of course, that Liu Chenyu was peerlessly beautiful, and her Charm Technique was refined to the highest degree.
A pity that after getting used to it for so long, it had lost its novelty.
After all, no matter how beautiful or alluring she was, fighting her every day for so long was bound to get old.
Seeing as he’d grown tired of Liu Chenyu’s Spiritual Energy Realm Mind Body and it no longer held any challenge, Zou Feng decided to proceed with his original plan: to challenge the Mind Body of True Monarch Tianyan.
True Monarch Tianyan was the leader of the Purple Cloud Association, after all. Though he wasn’t currently on the ranking list, there was no guarantee he wouldn’t decide to kill Zou Feng as he continued to rise in prominence.
Therefore, it was only natural to treat him as a hypothetical enemy.
After a short rest, Zou Feng stepped through the gate of light again and named True Monarch Tianyan as his challenger.
But to his surprise, the Hall of Combat’s Artifact Spirit replied that there was no Mind Body of True Monarch Tianyan available to challenge.
This stunned Zou Feng. No Mind Body for True Monarch Tianyan? That meant the man had never once fought anyone in the Hall of Combat.
’How could he resist using such a convenient and safe place to fight?’
’Does he think it’s beneath him, or...’
’...is he completely unwilling to let anyone see through the secrets of his Skills?’
No other choice, then. Since he couldn’t challenge True Monarch Tianyan, he would have to try challenging Jiang Wanzhao’s Mind Body first...
At that same moment, Chen Ang, who had been tirelessly challenging Zou Feng’s Mind Body, emerged from the gate of light with a look of utter despair.
After challenging it for so long, he had actually started to adapt to Zou Feng’s Skills and Poison Skill.
He had gone from being instantly killed at the beginning of every challenge to now being able to last for a decent amount of time.
He never expected this. He had thought that, with time, even if he couldn’t defeat Zou Feng himself, he could at least defeat his Mind Body and regain his confidence.
But in the challenge just now, he had been instantly killed all over again...
Chen Ang knew it wasn’t because he’d been careless. Zou Feng’s Mind Body had been updated!
That’s right. The strength of a Mind Body wasn’t fixed from the start—not unless Zou Feng established his Dao Foundation and left the Spiritual Energy Realm.
Otherwise, as his combat prowess within the Hall of Combat grew, his Mind Body would receive a "version update" every so often.
In other words, while Chen Ang had gained experience fighting the old version of the Mind Body, he never imagined that after a little more than ten days, Zou Feng’s Mind Body would get an update!
Chen Ang found this unacceptable. He couldn’t understand how Zou Feng could have made such immense progress in such a short time.
In truth, Chen Ang wasn’t the only one who was perplexed.
Yan Lingshuang, ranked forty-first on the Ascension Board after her defeat at Zou Feng’s hands, and Xiao Weiyang, ranked twelfth, who had been unable to stop himself from coughing up blood after challenging the Mind Body—they and others had been frequent challengers during this time.
As prodigies themselves, they had all gained insights after multiple challenges and were beginning to see a glimmer of hope in defeating Zou Feng’s Mind Body.
But unexpectedly, after just over ten days, Zou Feng’s Mind Body received its version update.
It left them utterly routed once again.
When news of this spread, some of the cultivators in the top ten of the Ascension Board who had wanted to test Zou Feng’s mettle all went quiet and decided to lie low.
You couldn’t really blame them for being cowards. These top-ten cultivators were all in the process of preparing to establish a superior Dao Foundation, a stage that allowed for no mistakes whatsoever.
There was simply no need to go looking for trouble, creating complications that might affect their mental state.
However, if a top-ten ranker went too long without a solid combat record, their ranking would be automatically lowered by the Celestial Dao Cauldron.
Furthermore, Song Yuanze, the so-called "battle maniac" ranked second and the person most likely to accept Zou Feng’s challenge, had yet to say when their "inevitable battle" would actually take place.
The version update to Zou Feng’s Mind Body had driven many Inner Sect Disciples to the brink of despair, which in turn affected its "business."
The spectacular sight of long queues forming to challenge his Mind Body was now a thing of the past.