Chapter 1730: Divided Spirit And Variant Body (II)
Chapter 1730: Divided Spirit And Variant Body (II)
Lulai Island.
The wind and rain over the sea had subsided, leaving the sky tinged with a strange bluish green. All outside colors were shut out by the light of the cave dwelling. Blue and purple lights flickered across the walls, driving surging spiritual qi into its depths.
A woman in white sat cross-legged at the center. Her slender brows curved gently, and her vermilion lips were slightly parted, seemingly holding a hazy, multicolored radiance within. Her expression was serene as her hands formed a seal before her abdomen, shining with divine light.
After an unknown length of time, she withdrew her mystic, and the multicolored radiance returned to her Shenyang Mansion. She rose to her feet, the light in her almond-shaped eyes brightening before dimming once more. She then exhaled and raised her brows.
[Seated Radiance] is far less difficult than I imagined... I estimate it will likewise take no more than two years...
During her early years of cultivation, Li Quewan had devoted a great deal of time to the [Profound Shamanic Spells]. Her spiritual orifice was located between her brows, allowing her to visualize her Shenyang Mansion from an early age. She also possessed exceptional innate ability in shamanic spells. Even so, cultivating this art had been like rowing against the current, every step fraught with difficulty.
Fortunately, those years of cultivation had not been fruitless. Once she turned to cultivating secret techniques, she found herself unraveling their intricacies strand by strand and comprehending them with perfect clarity. The time she had invested in her early years was now repaying her many times over, making her progress seem divinely aided!
[Whole Pill] places immense demands on one's Dao conduct. If an ordinary person were to cultivate [Seated Radiance], success would be impossible within ten or twenty years... Yet it comes quite easily to me...
She secretly breathed a sigh of relief, but concern soon stirred in her heart, I heard that Clan Uncle has been enfeoffed as the King of Wei... Who knows how much trouble that will bring? How frustrating that I can only remain overseas and cannot help at all.
Her desire to attain the Purple Mansion Realm grew more urgent with each passing day. Fortunately, she possessed ample patience and merely needed to devote herself more diligently to cultivation. Still, whenever the appointed day arrived for a letter from home, she would always emerge from seclusion on time.
She made her way out of the cave dwelling as the cultivators on either side bowed in succession. Li Quewan hurried into the main hall, which was awash with flowing light and color. Pale blue patterns from the murals reflected across a purple-gold table. A man sat at its center, draped in white fur with a precious pearl fastened at his waist and three vertical marks between his brows, studying the scroll laid out before him.
"Greetings, Daoist Master!"
This man was none other than Daoist Master Yuanbian, Liu Changdie. He appeared remarkably composed at the moment. He had spent little time in seclusion over the years, choosing instead to remain on this island. He had occasionally ventured outside in the past, but after that stormy night, he had not taken a single step beyond the island.
There was no other reason. He was simply, genuinely, afraid!
The thunderstorm that night had been highly unnatural and had clearly been controlled by someone. Thus, Liu Changdie had restrained himself and remained inside. After the incident passed, he secretly made some calculations and combined them with the mystic of his divine ability to uncover quite a few clues.
A powerful cultivator must have acted that night, and I may well have been the target... They only failed because they were wary of the great formation and were stopped by the dragons here in the Eastern Sea!
There was a reason Liu Changdie had spent so many years in the Southern Sea and Eastern Sea. Many of the things in his possession had come from ‘fortuitous encounters’ he had stumbled upon in those two regions. He had long suspected that the dragons had some reason to protect him in secret, and this incident had all but confirmed his suspicions.
Even while hiding here in the Eastern Sea, within this great formation, someone still tried to harm me... Who knows what would happen if I went anywhere else!
Liu Changdie was delighted to see Li Quewan. He nodded to her and rose to his feet.
He said with a smile, "You are certainly punctual."
When Liu Changdie had arrived on the island, Li Ximing had specifically instructed him to protect Li Quewan at all costs, so he had paid particular attention to her. Once they spoke in private, he was immediately astonished by her brilliance. This junior possessed such profound Dao conduct and such clarity of thought when casting arts that she did not resemble a Foundation Establishment Realm cultivator at all!
Upon asking further, he learned that Li Quewan had cultivated shamanic spell arts for many years, which had finally cleared up some of his confusion.
The Shamanic Talisman Dao is so ancient that it predates even the ancient immortal Daos of the Spiritual Cultivation Dao and subsisting on rosy clouds and dew. It points directly to the very foundation of the Great Dao...
These ancient immortal Daos of the Spiritual Cultivation Dao and subsisting on rosy clouds and dew generally referred to the Three Profundities Dao lineage, which originated from the Primordial Two Rites. One of its Daos had continued to spread and develop, eventually becoming the Three Profundities Dao lineage known throughout the world today. The Shamanic Talisman Dao, however, had already spread across the world during the same era as the Primordial Two Rites!
The Shamanic Talisman Dao alone occupies the three earliest positions among the Ancient Merging Techniques, [Merging Owl], [Supreme Shaman], and [Jade True]. They are also the crucial first, third, and sixth positions of the nine, which speaks volumes about its power.
Anyone who can achieve great accomplishments in the Shamanic Talisman Dao would find it effortless to wield the arts of most Purple Mansion and Golden Core Daos...
Of course, achieving such accomplishments was no easy feat. Simply studying a few shamanic spells and learning some curses and hexes was nowhere near enough. One had to be, at the very least, an orthodox inheritor of this Dao! This was precisely why Duanmu Kui had been able to overwhelm the heroes of his era, and how Jiang Boqing had mastered both the immortal and Buddhist Daos!
For this reason, Liu Changdie thought extremely highly of this Li Family junior. He could already envision her future path to the Purple Mansion Realm, and had begun subconsciously treating her as a fellow Purple Mansion Realm cultivator.
He smiled again and said, "Come! Take a look at this!"
Li Quewan treated him with even more respect, quickly stepping forward to stand beside the table, where she saw a golden scroll laid across it. The scroll was soft and appeared to have been woven from some kind of spiritual silk. Its runes were abstruse, and several lines of large, multicolored words adorned its surface.
[Wondrous Scroll of Divided Spirit and Variant Body].
Li Quewan began studying it carefully as Liu Changdie explained with a smile, "Your family sent this scroll over. Apparently, it was obtained from Changxiao Gate. Since it is an ancient item, it was sealed using a secret preservation method, so they asked me to unlock it... It took quite a bit of effort.
"Now that it has been unsealed, I can see that it contains a rather profound method of changing one's form and body. It can be used to refine variant bodies for preserving one's life, cultivating the Dao, avoiding tribulations, and escaping calamities. If one's Dao conduct is sufficiently profound and one possesses suitable treasures, one might even be able to use this art to reincarnate."
Li Quewan stared intently at the golden characters on the scroll and exclaimed, "To think it would be so precious!"
Although Li Quewan was not entirely clear about Li Zhouwei's current circumstances, she still understood that after perfecting one's divine ability, one could either seek the Golden Core or reincarnate. Realizing that the scroll might prove useful to her family's Daoist Master, her face immediately lit up with joy as she studied it closely.
This item might not have been anything extraordinary in ancient times, but in the present day, when most methods of reincarnation and traversing the Great Void had been lost, it was undeniably precious.
Liu Changdie nodded and sighed. "Unfortunately, its primary purposes are still the first four. Its ability to facilitate reincarnation is merely incidental... If one were to expend enough resources to refine a variant body to the point where it could be used for reincarnation, the resources consumed could probably nurture several Purple Mansion Realm cultivators or enhance countless divine abilities of one's own... Since it would not even improve the odds of success by much, why bother?
"Compared with the ancient Devil Fetus, the Ten-Colored Heart-Fusing Pearl... or even Metallic Essence, this art's chances of success are far too low, and it carries numerous lingering consequences. It can only serve as a last resort when no other path remains."
He smiled. "Regardless... it is still precious. I was fortunate enough to benefit from the opportunity and study it for a while."
Li Quewan hurriedly shook her head and replied respectfully, "You and our Daoist Master are the closest of friends, so it was only right to send it for you to study as well... There is no need to say such a thing. We could hardly allow you to spend so much time unsealing the scroll for nothing..."
Liu Changdie shook his head with an amused smile. He had long since ceased to regard his time as anything precious. He merely took a letter from his sleeve and said, "A letter from home... Go ahead and read it."
Li Quewan received it as though it were a supreme treasure and began reading. Liu Changdie gazed at her profile and sighed inwardly, I once thought... if I still had a child of my own, perhaps I could match them with her. But now it seems, even if I truly had a child, they would still be unworthy of her.
While Liu Changdie was lost in thought, someone hurried into the cave dwelling, bowed before him, and reported respectfully, "Daoist Master... A... A demon king is waiting outside the island! He wishes... to see you!"
A demon king?!
Liu Changdie's first thought was the dragons, and alarm surged through him. Then he suddenly sensed something and took a golden jade pendant from his sleeve. After examining it closely, he slapped the table in realization, feeling somewhat embarrassed.
Senior Fuxun has come to find me!