Chapter 294 245: Crimson Sky Fire

Chu Bamboo slowly opened his eyes. Perhaps because he had broken through again, although his head still ached a little, he was in much better shape than before. His voice was calm.

"Nuwa No. 17, bring me my Chixiao Sword."

"Yes." The Little Mushroom Head suddenly zipped out and gave a slight bow.

A moment later, another Little Mushroom Head appeared before Chu Bamboo, carrying a longsword on its shoulder.

Chu Bamboo drew the Chixiao Sword from its Bronze Sword Scabbard, studying it with a serious expression. Even though the sword was several thousand years old, it showed no signs of decay... Its edge was still as sharp as ever!

'My strength should be sufficient now, right?' Chu Bamboo recalled the contents of the diary. The threshold for use mentioned in it was the Second Realm.

His gaze sharpened, and he began to channel the Blessing Power from his body into the Chixiao Sword in a continuous stream.

Gradually, Chu Bamboo's face grew pale, but he gritted his teeth and persisted.

Finally.

A faint red glow bloomed from the patterns on the Chixiao Sword.

In that instant, Chu Bamboo thought he heard a clear, crisp ringing from the sword, but when he tried to focus on it, it seemed to have been just an illusion.

After staring at the sword for a long while, Chu Bamboo mused internally, 'Awakening the Chixiao Sword used up nearly half of my Blessing Power... If I remember correctly, creating a Cloned Divine Technique seems to cost about a third...'

After a moment of contemplation, Chu Bamboo made up his mind. With a serious expression, he followed the instructions from the diary he had read and began to perform the Reproduction on the Chixiao Sword's Divine Technique.

The first Reproduction, naturally, failed.

Chu Bamboo wasn't disappointed. He had the Little Mushroom Head take him to the orchard for breakfast.

'I'm in no hurry to contend with Eleven and Fifth now! I'll first stabilize my Second Realm Cultivation and thoroughly figure out the situation with my Second Divine Power before venturing out!'

Several hours later, after letting the Energy in his body recover a bit, Chu Bamboo managed to scrape together another third of his Blessing Power and continued with the Reproduction.

The second time, he succeeded!

'Crimson Sky Fire.' Chu Bamboo closed his eyes to perceive it. He could keenly sense a raging flame now residing within his memory. As long as his thoughts touched that flame, he could activate it.

The Reproduction of a Divine Technique, according to the diary, wasn't actually copying!

Instead, it was about cognizing and understanding a Divine Technique, forming a memory of it, and then branding this memory deep within his mind. When needed, he could trigger the branded Divine Memory and Rewrite it onto his own body.

To put it bluntly, the Divine Power of Reproduction was ultimately developed as an extension of Rewrite!

The name "Reproduction" was just for Chu Bamboo's ease of understanding, chosen based on its function. It didn't mean the fundamental principle was truly replication.

Of course, precisely because its essence was Rewriting, when using a Reproduced memory... only one Cloned Divine Technique could be used at any given time!

As for the use of these Rewritten Divine Techniques...

For offensive Divine Techniques, you just need to input Blessing Power and unleash the attack. The more Blessing Power you input, the stronger the attack...

For hybrid offensive-control or support-type Divine Techniques, they could be used for slightly longer.

But the absolute maximum duration of use was only ten minutes!

'The Chixiao Sword only comes with a single Divine Technique and some of its characteristics, but there's no mention of Divine Power. Strange... I wonder if it's because of its Forging method, or because in the ancient times of the Real World, they had Divine Techniques but hadn't yet developed Divine Power...' Chu Bamboo clenched his fist, lost in thought, then examined the Chixiao Sword in his hand once more.

If one were to use the Chixiao Sword simply, it would grant control over fire...

However, now that Chu Bamboo had used Reproduction on the Crimson Sky Fire within it, using the Divine Technique was far more flexible than simply swinging the sword, summoning flames, and hacking and burning people.

The Divine Technique, Crimson Sky Fire, had three characteristics:

First, complete immunity to all fire damage. Even against high-temperature damage that wasn't from flames, it could nullify ninety percent of it!

Second, Ultimate Flame! The more Blessing Power Chu Bamboo poured into the flame, the more its lethality, attack range, and temperature would increase—without limit.

Theoretically, with enough Blessing Power, it wouldn't be impossible to create a small-scale nuclear fusion. Moreover, with proficient control over the flame, he could even shape it into different forms... for example, a dragon or a Vermilion Bird...

Third, Body of Flame! This was somewhat similar to the elemental transformation in Pirate King.

In this strange state, physical attacks like bullets, explosions, and strikes from blades or axes could all be nullified... The only thing that could cause harm was being doused with water. If the flames were extinguished, Chu Bamboo would naturally exit the flame state and even suffer a backlash.

Offense, control, and defense! It had them all.

"..." Chu Bamboo contemplated the three characteristics, a storm of shock raging in his heart.

'Powerful! Unbelievably, heaven-defyingly powerful! Powerful with no blind spots.'

'The only weakness is water! But if the enemy doesn't know about it, then without the intervention of a higher-level Cultivator, it's practically an unbeatable ability even in the Modern Era. I say "practically" because of the loophole of only nullifying ninety percent of high-temperature damage! If someone really threw a tactical nuke at me and the temperature got high enough, I'd most likely be vaporized.'

'But... tactical nukes, while they could be used, are highly unlikely to be deployed in the Modern Era!'

For a moment, Chu Bamboo felt a bit emotional. No wonder they say the battles of Cultivators are battles of intelligence... But then, Chu Bamboo remembered Fifth's absurd Divine Technique and immediately felt at ease again!

'Compared to that monster, this ability of mine isn't that game-breaking.'

Patting his cheeks, Chu Bamboo brought his thoughts back to the present. He repeatedly examined the Chixiao Sword, now curious about just how terrifying the original owner of this sword's Divine Technique was.

'Speaking of which, did this Divine Technique originate from Liu Bang, or from someone else he killed?'

Chu Bamboo abruptly fell into deep thought. If it really was Liu Bang...

...then just how strong must Xiang Yu have been, the man who could chase Liu Bang around and make him flee for his life?

'But aren't Artifacts forged from the corpses of Transcendents...? Or could it be that the Transcendents from the ancient times of the Real World didn't follow this logic? Or perhaps the Chixiao Sword was only truly completed after Liu Bang's death, when his corpse was integrated into it?'

Chu Bamboo pondered this for a long while. Unable to figure it out, he decided to stop thinking about it. He then began to consider whether he should wait for his Energy to recover and then Reproduce a second Divine Technique.

'Right now, my Cultivation is at the Second Realm! This means I can simultaneously carry two Reproduced Divine Techniques...'

'Upon reaching the Third Realm, I'll be able to Reproduce three Divine Techniques! And so on...'