On this day, Jiang Yun's primordial spirit seemed to break through a layer of obstruction. Waves of clear energy surged into it, making it increasingly solid. The Space Law and Earth Element Law he had comprehended earlier also wound around it, tinting the primordial spirit with traces of silver-white and earthy yellow.
His main body, the Congenital Cloud Bamboo, suddenly shot up to a thousand zhang tall, its branches lush and leaves abundant. Its shadow covered nearly half the valley. Compared with the surrounding offshoots, it stood out like a crane among chickens. Earth Element Spiritual Energy, earthy yellow in color, was drawn from the Earth Spirit Pearl and continuously gathered toward Jiang Yun's main body, forming a massive spiritual energy vortex.
Within the vortex, a huge Cloud Bamboo gently swayed its branches and leaves. It accepted all the incoming spiritual energy without resistance, absorbing every bit of it into its body.
After a long while, the surging Earth Element Spiritual Energy gradually returned to calm, changing from a rushing torrent into a slow flow. At the center of the former vortex, the thousand-zhang-tall Congenital Cloud Bamboo had vanished. In its place stood an ordinary-looking man dressed in a cyan Daoist robe embroidered with several spirit bamboos bearing cloud patterns.
The man wore a faint smile, and a hint of laziness colored his bearing. An ethereal, refined air naturally surrounded him, as though he were a hermit who had emerged from green mountains and clear waters.
"I, Jiang Yun, have finally completed Form Transformation today!"
The man let out a light breath, his expression carefree. He had been in this world for more than a hundred years. In his previous life, that would have been an ordinary person's entire lifetime. However, because his main body was a spirit root, he had only been able to take root in this valley and had never managed to go out and look around. It had truly been suffocating.
Although he often let his primordial spirit leave his body and walked around the valley, he had never stepped beyond the formation's range, nor had he dared to stray too far from his main body. After all, a primordial spirit separated from the body was still very fragile. Besides, he was in the Primordial Desolation World, where danger could descend at any moment.
"Now that my cultivation has broken through to the Golden Immortal realm, I should count as a powerhouse in the Western Land. I've just broken through, so I'll consolidate my cultivation first, then properly organize my Dao techniques..."
With that thought, Jiang Yun waved his sleeve and leveled a patch of land where his main body had originally taken root. Then he reached toward the bamboo forest on his left and grabbed. A cluster of Cloud Bamboo cleanly broke away from its roots and flew to his side.
At the stir of his thoughts, the bamboo was automatically cut into suitable shapes and joined together. In the blink of an eye, a bamboo house had been built on the leveled land. Its roof was woven from layers of bamboo leaves, and a bamboo-leaf meditation mat lay inside. The whole place was filled with verdant greenery.
Jiang Yun sat cross-legged on the mat and slightly lowered his eyelids, bringing the Tongtian True Scripture from his mind to study it carefully.
Next, he spent half a year tempering his mana and familiarizing himself with his current physical body. Only then did the restless emotions brought about by his breakthrough settle down. His previously unstable mana also became condensed through his deliberate refinement, and his foundation gradually stabilized.
After his cultivation was completely stabilized, Jiang Yun turned his attention elsewhere.
"Cultivation is divided into methods of cultivating the Dao and arts for protecting the Dao. As for the method of cultivation, I possess the Jianmu Tongtian True Scripture inherited from my spirit-root bloodline. What I lack now are arts for protecting the Dao."
Arts for protecting the Dao were further divided into Combat Methods and Divine Ability Techniques. In the Primordial Desolation, the Wu Clan was a typical example of Combat Methods. They focused on cultivating the physical body, used their bloodlines to carry laws, and treated their powerful bodies as weapons. With a wave of the hand, their bloodlines drew forth laws to follow. The Three Pure Ones and other Mystic Sect cultivators were typical examples of Divine Ability Techniques. They focused on cultivating the primordial spirit, used it to carry laws, and practiced Divine Ability Techniques, using the laws they had comprehended as a guide to connect with the power of Heaven and Earth for their attacks.
The two methods had their own strengths. Combat Methods produced sturdy physical bodies and formidable battle power, but required abundant cultivation resources and tremendous perseverance to endure the pain of physical cultivation. Divine Ability Techniques were easy to learn but difficult to master and consumed fewer resources, yet one needed great wisdom to cultivate them to a profound realm and unleash their full might.
"Since I have the Dao Derivation Disk, of course I'll try cultivating both Combat Methods and Divine Ability Techniques. I'll begin by deducing Divine Ability Techniques!"
The first offensive Divine Ability Technique Jiang Yun deduced was inspired by the Fan Tian Yin that Guang Chengzi had used in the legends of his previous life, which had left a deep impression on him.
"At present, the law I've comprehended most deeply is the Earth Element Law. Earth Element Power can suppress, while Space Law can imprison space."
He fused the Earth Element Law with Space Law in his deduction. Forming Hand Seals with both hands, he mobilized the power of laws above his primordial spirit and his abundant Sea of Mana, connecting them with the laws and spiritual energy of Heaven and Earth. He successfully constructed a great seal.
Once the great seal formed, the surrounding space in the area beneath it was imprisoned into walls. Waves of pressure descended from above, the vibrating air rippled, and the earth began to crack before finally sinking three feet.
Jiang Yun had only formed the seal with Hand Seals and had not urged the great seal to attack. If he truly activated it, it would surely cause mountains to collapse and the earth to split.
Seeing that the deduced seal technique possessed considerable might, he immediately withdrew his Hand Seals and cut off the flow of mana. The great seal in the air promptly broke apart and vanished. His Dao Field was still too small and unsuitable for testing Divine Ability Techniques. Besides, the valley was filled with his offshoots, and he did not want to destroy the hard-won vitality that had only just recovered.
"This seal technique was based on the Fan Tian Yin, while I incorporated the Earth Element Law and Space Law into it. When unleashed, it's like Mount Tai crushing the top. I'll call it the Mount Tai Seal!"
Now that he had an offensive Divine Ability Technique, next came defensive Divine Ability Techniques and Escape Divine Abilities.
According to Jiang Yun's plan, the defensive Divine Ability Technique would form several mana shields around his body and arrange them into a shield formation. The earth element was heavy and could serve as the foundation for defense. Then, by using Spatial Power to disperse incoming attacks, he could both increase his defensive strength and leave no opening.
After carrying out a deduction based on his original plan, he successfully used the defensive Divine Ability Technique and named it the Mysterious Spirit Shield.
Next, without pause, he continued deducing Escape Divine Abilities. He separately deduced Shrink Ground to Inch for ordinary travel and Great Earth Evasion for escaping danger.
Of course, because his comprehension of Space Law was still only superficial, Shrink Ground to Inch could currently take him only several dozen li in one step. However, he believed that as he continued comprehending Space Law, it would eventually become commonplace to compress ten thousand li into less than an inch with a single step. By then, Shrink Ground to Inch would be even faster than Great Earth Evasion.
For now, his Earth Element Law was more deeply comprehended, so techniques using Earth Element Power were more effective. Wherever earth existed, as long as his primordial spirit and mana could support him, he could reach the destination in the blink of an eye.
This uninterrupted series of Divine Ability Technique deductions had left Jiang Yun rather fatigued. He decided to leave seclusion and rest for a while, while also finding a place outside the valley to practice these techniques.
He walked out of the bamboo house where he had cultivated in seclusion and arrived outside the valley. After using the newly deduced Shrink Ground to Inch, he flashed several times and found a desolate mountain foot. He then began practicing his Divine Ability Techniques. Practice allowed him to become thoroughly familiar with them. Over time, his casting speed would increase and their might would grow stronger, until eventually a thought would produce the technique.
He formed Hand Seals and used Great Earth Evasion, traveling back and forth beneath the ground without restraint. One moment he emerged in the east, and the next he had fled to the mountaintop.
He then used Shrink Ground to Inch. This technique was more flexible than Escape Divine Abilities, allowing him to turn left or right, advance or retreat, without the slightest obstruction. He enjoyed himself immensely.
After playing around for a while, Jiang Yun stopped at the foot of the mountain. He used the Mount Tai Seal against a small hill. With one strike, the hilltop instantly collapsed, sending rocks flying. In the end, the entire mountain was forcibly pressed into the ground, and the mountain peak was abruptly transformed into a valley.
Seeing the result, Jiang Yun nodded in satisfaction. He was very pleased with the might of the Mount Tai Seal. Only the Mysterious Spirit Shield remained untested! However, he looked around and could not find anything suitable for testing the defensive effect of the Mysterious Spirit Shield. Thus, he decided to first put the Mysterious Spirit Shield around himself, then unleash the Mount Tai Seal against himself.
By controlling his mana output, he first used the Mount Tai Seal with ten percent of its power. The Mysterious Spirit Shield remained completely unmoved. He then gradually increased his mana. Finally, when he used ninety percent of its power, the Mysterious Spirit Shield began to struggle and nearly collapsed. Jiang Yun hurriedly cut off the mana and dispersed the Mount Tai Seal. It seemed that the Mysterious Spirit Shield could just about withstand the Mount Tai Seal at ninety percent strength.
"Even if I unleash the Mount Tai Seal with all my strength, the remaining ten percent of its power after breaking through the Mysterious Spirit Shield should still be insufficient to injure me."
After silently calculating for a while, Jiang Yun happily turned around and returned to his Dao Field.
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