Volume 4, Chapter 124 – Thoughts

On the way to Qiyun Circuit, Bai Xiang sorted through the mixed and disorderly memories provided to her by Wang Xiu and Zhu Yunsheng.

Wang Xiu had been her main quarry on this hunt. Zhu Yunsheng had purely been an extra.

Even so, the memories the latter provided were still very useful.

Among them was the complete Yuling Thirty-Two Constellation Array Diagram. If one could find thirty-two cultivators of equal cultivation and refine this diagram together with them, one could set up the Yuling Dragon-Gathering Constellation Grand Array, centrally coordinate the cultivation and output of everyone involved, and then amplify that output by multiples on top of that.

The creator of this method was Yuling Sect’s founder, Daoist Lingquan. He had originally been a spiritual spring vein that, after being twisted by the Void Tribulation, transformed into a demon and then struggled upward step by step through cultivation. In his original notes, he wrote that this method could in theory harmonize with the remnant Heavenly Gang order of Yuling Heaven. Every star lit would increase output by another factor of one, for a maximum thirty-twofold increase. A single punch at full strength could shake mountains and rivers, and might even bore through and blow apart a small Illusory Realm.

Regrettably, that was only in theory. Even Daoist Lingquan himself had only cultivated it to a thirteenfold increase. Even so, he had dominated his region by relying on this method. While he still held control of Yuling Sect, no one in the surrounding fragment belt had dared defy his authority.

As for Zhu Yunsheng himself, his mother, the Yuling Sect chief, Immortal Venerable Yuding, had found a shortcut. She had chosen to extract the remnant Heavenly Gang order from Yuling Heaven and turn it into an extremely rare inheritance Divine Pool.

Immortal Venerable Yuding was the direct descendant of Daoist Lingquan, and she too carried the bloodline of that spiritual spring. Because that bloodline itself was the concentrated essence of all of Yuling Heaven, she had been able to accomplish such a thing.

Of course, it had not come without a price.

Daoist Lingquan had not done this while he was still alive, and naturally he had had his reasons. Drawing away the Heavenly Gang order would greatly damage Yuling Heaven’s destined lifespan. That Illusory Realm plane was already on the verge of collapse and would vanish before long.

But for Immortal Venerable Yuding and Yuling Sect, that price was still worth paying.

The remaining lifespan of Yuling Heaven was not enough for them to keep hiding there and drag out their existence until the next round of tribulation struggle. Since they had already decided to return to the main world and join the struggle, they naturally had to do everything possible to turn the resources in their hands into combat power.

And this Divine Pool version of the Yuling Grand Array required another inheritance Divine Pool to be used alongside it, or one could say the innate power of the Lingquan bloodline, Yuling Marrow Threads.

Yuling Marrow Threads was an extremely exquisite secret art. It carried both the effects of a body cultivation method and a faint touch of the soul path.

Zhu Yunsheng himself did not know the latter’s origin. He had only heard from his mother that the founder’s true form might once have been worshipped by the local inhabitants and might have received a certain amount of incense-wish power.

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The local natives had known nothing of the Void Tribulation. They had only believed that their survival had come through the protection of the Spring Immortal. So they had named that spring the Immortal Spring of Spirit-Rinsing, Rebirth, and Soul-Cleansing. They had even built a temple beside it, erected a spirit tablet, and gone there to worship it year after year.

So that was the embryo of a Divine Pool…

Just like the old Human-Head Shop, once the cognition of a sufficient number of sentient beings was altered and they all believed that a twisted rule ought to exist, heaven-and-earth order would allow a certain probability that they could knead that rule out of the void and make it real.

It was likely because of this that, when the spiritual spring gained intelligence, the Yuling Marrow Threads extracted from within it also carried the power to rinse the spirit and cleanse the soul. Once infused into another person’s body, they could strip away that person’s memories and manipulate even the soul into becoming a puppet.

Bai Xiang did not possess the Lingquan bloodline, so she could not extract Yuling Marrow Threads from within herself. This alternative method of soul control was of little use to her.

But the Yuling Thirty-Two Constellation Array Diagram had given her no small amount of inspiration. It had not only broadened her horizons and shown her that heaven-and-earth energy, which those people called Tianyuan, could be used in this way, it had also given her some insights into body cultivation through the accompanying inheritance Divine Pool.

By comparison, the Seven-Meridian Demon Ascension Transformation glimpsed from Wang Xiu’s memories left her deeply disappointed.

This art truly had been created by Wang Xiu himself, which was enough to prove his talent. But the key point was that it was not something that genuinely belonged to him. Those seven great meridian dragons were not something the human body should naturally possess. They had been attached by force out of thin air.

These were not human meridians. They were demon meridians. Wang Xiu had comprehended them through fighting vicious demons like the Ancient Calamity Dragon in the desolate fragment belt. The inspiration had been refined from those monsters.

After only a cursory look through the method, Bai Xiang had already concluded that Wang Xiu had been courting death.

He had only just finished perfecting and mastering the method, and already when he activated it he looked half-human and half-ghost. Every time he underwent ascension transformation, he even had to dissolve into a puddle of flesh and reconstruct himself.

What would become of him when he truly brought it to perfection?

Would he not actually “transform into a dragon,” becoming just like the Ancient Calamity Dragon and those other vicious demons with broken bones and rotten flesh leaking all over their bodies?

There was something wrong with this thing.

And the problem was a big one.

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Bai Xiang carefully searched Wang Xiu’s memories and found that, although the method had indeed been his own creation, the source of his inspiration, that Seven-Meridian Demon Dragon Spear, had played a crucial role in bringing his inspiration together during the process.

And the sacred weapon schematics used to forge that spear had been something he purchased from Cloud Tower at enormous cost.

Cloud Tower was precisely the outward-facing force of Blood Soul Heaven’s intelligence division. Combined with Wang Xiu’s earlier conversation with that silver-haired young man holding the folding fan, it was very difficult to say that Wang Xiu had not been manipulated by Blood Soul Heaven on his path of cultivation.

“Wang Xiu was humiliated and discriminated against from childhood onward. Those childhood experiences twisted his nature and made him swear to stand above all others, above humans and above demons, no matter the price.”

Bai Xiang carefully savored Wang Xiu’s entire life. Only after a long while did she open her eyes.

“He probably never imagined that, despite always being so proud and cautious, even something this important would still be played with in someone else’s palm.”

Since that was the case, the Seven-Meridian Demon Ascension Transformation was definitely unusable.

Originally, Bai Xiang had planned to use that method as a reference to manifest and temper seven of the twelve hidden meridians. For now, she could only give that up.

Still, between the two of them, they knew quite a few hidden orifices. Adding them together, and then finding a way to inquire further through the Venerable Net, manifesting and tempering seven new meridians might be too much to hope for, but two to three should be secure.

So Bai Xiang was not overly disappointed.

To put it bluntly, all of these gains were merely extras for the moment.

Her greatest treasure was still the little yellow jade, a true killing trump card that could break Divine Pool rebirth.

From this day on, so long as there was no risk of the secret leaking, any Immortal Venerable Dao Lord who could not defeat her yet still chose to make an enemy of her would have only one ending: becoming food for Feixiang Heaven.

Without dwelling further on those matters, Bai Xiang began considering what exactly Blood Soul Heaven was trying to do.

Her conclusion was that Blood Soul Heaven might be carrying out two schemes at once.

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One was the proxy matter discussed between Wang Xiu and that silver-haired young man with the folding fan, the youth called Young Master Shao. Blood Soul Heaven intended to imitate the Demon Court’s method of supporting a vessel in the main world to contend for the dragon-throne, and establish Yao Quan, the crown prince of Great Yu, as the new emperor of the next dynasty.

The other lacked sufficient proof, but she suspected there was some terrifying mystery hidden within the path of sacred weapons, which was extremely popular among both the human race and even the demon race in the Void Realm.

“Blood Soul Heaven can use sacred weapon schematics to inject principles close to the Void Tribulation into the path of sacred weapons, luring cultivators onto the wrong road.”

“So how many such sacred weapon schematics have they scattered out there?”

“And how many cultivators stuck at the peak of Immortal Venerable, unable to reach the Saint Realm, have chosen to buy these sacred weapon schematics?”

Bai Xiang frowned. She recalled that when speaking with Sun Yaoming earlier, he had briefly mentioned that Zhang Dai, the Dao Lord of Tianfu Mountain, had recently gone into seclusion and had already been secluded for some time.

And when Bai Xiang had logged onto the Venerable Net earlier, she had also checked Zhang Dai’s information. The answer given there had been that Zhang Dai was obsessed with the path of sacred weapons to the point of near-possession by madness, and that he might vanish from sight just like the many cultivators similarly addicted to that path.

What did “vanish from sight” mean?

It sounded a little better than “dead” or “fallen.”

It probably meant that after going mad and cultivating incorrectly, there was a substantial chance one would die violently, and because one had declared oneself to be in seclusion, the truth would only be discovered much later.

Could this also count as a “new law”?

At that thought, Bai Xiang’s lips curled slightly.

It was a shortcut, and it was far from comparable to the Path of Qi, but it truly did violate the tacit understanding jointly upheld by the demon race and the human race.

It seems I am far from the only one seeking a new law and a breakthrough.

Whether that was truly the case could wait.

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She estimated that Li Huiran would probably be very interested in this matter.

“And there is also the Returning-to-Origin Purple Qi.”

Young Master Shao had also taught Wang Xiu the secret method for extracting Returning-to-Origin Purple Qi, as well as how to transfer and infuse that Returning-to-Origin Purple Qi into another person. At this point, that too had become a windfall for Bai Xiang, who understood and mastered it with ease.

Bai Xiang narrowed her eyes and thought of Liu Yong, who was still recovering within the circuit.

“I have been a Dao Lord and a Venerable Lord for some time now.”

“Perhaps it is about time I formally took on a disciple and had them handle certain matters on my behalf.”

With that thought in mind, the urban district of Qiyun Circuit gradually drew near.

Because of the effects of Loss of Order, the local heavens still showed a nightscape. Bai Xiang quickly located the brightest area of lamplight and at once saw a newly built manor standing there.

In the small plaza inside the manor, quite a few shrinking, fearful people had gathered. In the center stood an enormous bronze furnace. Eight trenches spread out from the furnace’s base, extending outward. Seen from above, they formed an array diagram.

Zhu Canghai was standing in the plaza, shouting and berating the people below him. Inside the bronze furnace behind him, violet-gold flames were already surging and leaping.

A thick scent of blood drifted through the air.

Bai Xiang noticed that those trenches were already stained with a layer of blood filth. It was obvious they had already been used.

The formal extraction of the earth meridians had not even begun, yet the opening-ceremony-like phase of human sacrifice alone had already drawn out this much Returning-to-Origin Purple Qi…

Bai Xiang frowned, did not hesitate, and immediately descended toward that place.