Eternal Heavenly Emperor-Chapter 471 - 461: Return

After Flame Mountain, there was another vast plain where the fat grass was as tall as a man, looking like a sea of green.

From here, even the people of Copper Valley tribe were completely unfamiliar, only able to understand a thing or two from the records of their ancestors. It was said that the fourth strategic key point was an iceberg.

Five days later, Chu Hao appeared in front of a gigantic iceberg that stretched for thousands of miles, the cold wind piercingly cold, enough to threaten warriors of the Warrior tier.

If they were to start a battle here, they had to solve the problem of keeping warm first.

However, Chu Hao soon saw the flags planted on the mountain, those were the war flags of the Copper Valley tribe.

More than half a year had passed, the Copper Valley tribe must have captured this strategic location—otherwise, it would be overtaken by another tribe.

He walked over quickly, his body’s Flame Furnace releasing heat, making it impossible for the cold to invade his body.

"Who goes there!" A loud shout erupted, a squad of soldiers armed with long spears also charged out, their bitterly cold spear tips aimed directly at Chu Hao.

"Chu Hao!"

These were the soldiers left behind by the Copper Valley tribe, naturally they recognized Chu Hao, this great hero, immediately showing expressions of surprise, excitement, and admiration. In the previous six months, Chu Hao’s deeds were nothing short of miraculous; he had entered the nest of the fire cockroaches with two War Elders, overpowered the Queen, paving the way for the tribe’s advancement.

His fame had begun to wane only in the recent half-year, as the Copper Valley tribe repeatedly emerged victorious in battles and more outsiders joined. Not that anyone’s achievements surpassed his—indeed there were a few outsiders with extraordinarily formidable strength, but the main reason was Chu Hao had not appeared for far too long, people tend to forget, and the astonishing performances of several outsiders made more people remember them instead.

Moreover, the Copper Valley tribe had also absorbed more tribes, further swelling its population. Many people only heard of Chu Hao’s heroic actions through others.

Chu Hao smiled and exchanged greetings with them, then inquired about the situation of the Copper Valley tribe.

These soldiers had been stationed here for a long time, therefore they weren’t clear about the latest progress of the Copper Valley tribe, but they naturally knew more compared to Chu Hao.

With Chu Hao’s assistance, the Copper Valley tribe had captured Flame Land, and the advantage of this strategic fortress was... it could provide a large amount of the fire cockroaches’ corrosive fluid.

This, when applied to weapons, allowed them to tear through battle armor and could also be made into siege cannons, possessing terrifying destructive power.

Thus, in the war against the tribe on the other side of Flame Land, the Copper Valley tribe quickly gained the upper hand, making the other tribe surrender in just two months. Following that, the Copper Valley tribe amalgamated the warriors and war chariots of eight tribes, plus the outsiders from those tribes, further enhancing their strength.

Afterwards, they launched a major offensive against this iceberg and, after sacrificing a substantial number of troops, successfully advanced further. After recuperating for a while, they waged a bloody battle against the tribe on the other side of the iceberg, achieving a pyrrhic victory.

Now, Copper Valley had assimilated sixteen tribes, but the number of War Venerates hadn’t increased since they suffered severe losses in the last two battles; however, the group of outsiders had expanded quite a bit.

It’s not that the outsiders were stronger, but they came seeking opportunities, who would risk their lives in war? They naturally opted for safety over danger, so it was normal that they had fewer losses.

Even so, after this Holy War ended, at least half of them would permanently stay in this Minor World.

The casualties were still severe.

Now, the Copper Valley tribe was launching an attack on the fifth strategic fortress, and if they could capture Iron Sword Gorge and also assimilate the tribe on the other side, they would be able to directly face Holy Valley and compete with three other tribes that had emerged victorious, vying for the Holy Object.

But whether they had fought and succeeded, these soldiers were unclear, as the last news they received from the tribe was a month ago.

"Chu Hao, your war chariot is here as well," said a soldier.

Chu Hao was overjoyed. He had now advanced to War King and even reached the Fourth Tier, finally able to fully display the power of the war chariot, reaching the level of War Venerate.

He had always wanted to personally experience this kind of power, which was greatly beneficial.

Many martial artists were stuck at major realm bottlenecks simply because they faced the unknown ahead, uncertain of how to progress. But if they could personally experience the power and workings of this realm, it would undoubtedly become much easier.

Chu Hao had broken through to War King so easily before precisely because he made contact with the tier of War King with the help of the war chariot.

Of course, even without the help of the war chariot he could have broken through to War King, it might just have taken a bit longer.

It was the same situation now.

But breaking through to War Venerate was much harder than War King, just like his master and Tu Honglie, who hadn’t seen the faintest hope of breaking through to War Venerate even after being stuck at the peak of War King for over a hundred years?

Once they overcame this step, martial artists could truly be called strong ones, and martial artists from the Upper Three Realms would be respected wherever they went.

Chu Hao bade farewell to those soldiers, jumped onto the war chariot, and with a thought, the Fire Phoenix immediately appeared, boom, flames raged, and the war chariot blasted off into the sky, turning into a streak of light.

So fast!

Chu Hao exclaimed in his heart, this war chariot’s original speed was fast enough, but now it had incredibly doubled.

This was understandable, before he was a War General, but now he was a War King, how could it be the same?

At this pace, he should be able to reach the sixth checkpoint by tomorrow?

Chu Hao was multitasking, driving the war chariot while simultaneously lifting his hand, from which two yellow flames spewed forth, exuding boundless might.

The flame he had first formed was only slightly blue at its edge, but as his physical constitution improved, it turned into a blue flame, then upgraded to a green flame, and eventually changed to a green with a hint of purple.

The change in color represented an increase in the power of the flame, which was a manifestation of his improved physical constitution.

Now, he had directly skipped the purple flame stage and obtained the yellow flame.

"Fat Cat would certainly be shocked to see this!" Chu Hao burst into laughter, but what frustrated him was that his Elemental Transformation realm had only expanded a tiny bit, as if his ancestral blood had hardly improved.

On reflection, this was quite normal.

Physical constitution and ancestral blood were two different things.

Ancestral blood derived from a powerful ancestor who had comprehended a certain universal law and passed this understanding down through their bloodline. Thus, descendants with sufficiently concentrated ancestral blood could perform Elemental Transformation.

Moreover, these descendants advanced quickly in their cultivation because they had access to a certain amount of universal law. Although they could not comprehend it, it flowed in their blood, bestowing considerable advantages upon them.

Physical constitution, however, is entirely different. It is given by heaven and can be enhanced through personal effort, yet it is limited by the body’s inherent potential.

Chu Hao’s previous advancement was in his physical constitution; he might have directly skipped four, five, or even six levels, but the improvement in his ancestral blood was pitifully small, so the expansion of his Elemental Transformation realm was naturally limited.

"The Purple Crystal Sword must be ready by now. Now that I’ve comprehended the Intent Realm and broken through to War King, I should be able to start cultivating a Heaven Level Martial Technique ahead of schedule, right?" Chu Hao thought to himself. As a martial arts fanatic, he was eager to practice that swordsmanship.

"Besides, I might also comprehend the Fifth Form of the Mad Thunder Sword Technique!"

Not willing to waste time, he used his finger as a sword and began to ponder it.

"My Divine Sense is still lacking; cultivating is truly strenuous!" After a while, Chu Hao frowned slightly. Heaven Level Martial Techniques involved the Intent Realm, which is actually a manifestation of the Divine Soul, requiring a substantial amount of Soul Force.

But Soul Force is limited; once depleted, it needs to naturally replenish, and expanding the Life Spring also requires the support of Soul Force, inevitably compromising one for the other.

"No wonder Heaven Level Martial Techniques require a War Venerate for cultivation, because only a War Venerate’s cultivation of Divine Sense provides sufficient Divine Sense for Derivation. I am indeed overestimating my capabilities!" Chu Hao shook his head, but a smile emerged on his face.

"However, it is precisely because of this, if I can master a Heaven Level Martial Technique now, who among the War Kings would be my opponent?"

Yuan Tiangang’s sudden breakthrough to War King put a lot of pressure on Chu Hao, making him feel that something was amiss. Therefore, even though he was now practicing Star-Body Dual Cultivation and had greatly advanced in physical constitution, he still wanted to make himself even stronger.

"My cultivation progress is fast enough now; I can slow down a bit and derive a Heaven Level Martial Technique as my real trump card!"

As he pondered, a gorge appeared ahead.

It was originally a massive mountain range spanning thousands of miles, but now a gorge had appeared in the middle, as if it had been cleaved by a single blow. Yet, if that were the case, what immense power must the person wielding the sword possess?

The walls of the gorge were covered with iron spikes, looking as if it were studded with countless sword blades.

This must be Iron Sword Gorge.

Whoosh, with flames roaring, the battle chariot instantly arrived before the gorge. Below, a continuous expanse of tents laid out; the army of Copper Valley’s tribe was stationed here.

Clearly, they hadn’t yet captured this strategic fortress.

Whoosh, a long arrow shot swiftly towards him, as fast as a streak of light.

Chu Hao snorted, his right fist tensed, striking out.

Whack, the arrow was immediately shattered.

"Cease fire!" A commanding shout rang out, and the figure of the High Priest appeared, looking up at the sky with a smile on his aged face, "Chu Hao, you’re finally back!"

Chu Hao landed the chariot and looked towards the person who had shot the arrow at him—it was a young man appearing to be in his early twenties, exceptionally handsome and tall, emitting a very strong aura.

This was an outsider, hence the arrow would have been deflected by him even if he hadn’t struck it down as it approached him.

However, Chu Hao hadn’t met this person before; he must have joined during Chu Hao’s time refining the Fire Spirit Crystal at the insect nest.

"Chu Hao!"

"You scoundrel!"

"Junior brother!"

Su Wanyue and others also walked out from the tents, and Chu Hao also spotted many familiar faces—Duan Wuque, Lin Zhining, Gao Feng, siblings Xu Wuheng, and others.

"Haha, long time no see. How have you all been?" Chu Hao smiled and nodded to the crowd.

"Ah, you’ve broken through to War King!" Xu Wuheng exclaimed. (To be continued. If you like this series, you are welcome to vote for and recommend it on qidian.com. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please visit m.qidian.com to read.)