The Tuo Yu Immortal Scripture

"It smells like daphne and orchids, with a milky sweetness too!" Xu Ying sniffed his hand again.

Yuan Qi said, "Disgusting!"

Xu Ying apologized to Yuan Weiyang. "Brother Yuan, I haven't even thanked you for helping me on the way, and now I've dragged you into this again. I feel terribly uneasy."

Yuan Weiyang shook his head. "I came looking for you. How could I possibly not help? As for being left behind by the Zhou Family Ancestor, that had nothing to do with you. I saw Shuikou Temple undergo another upheaval and couldn't suppress my curiosity, so I came here. You already warned me. My luck was simply bad."

Xu Ying smiled. "I'm happy you came looking for me to go fishing too."

Yuan Weiyang shook his head. "I came to discuss the mysteries of circulating divine consciousness, not to go fishing."

Xu Ying continued on his own, "We can dig for loaches together too. Have you ever caught shrimp? You have to be careful when catching them. Feel your way over slowly, then strike fast, or they'll jump backward out of your hands and bounce right onto your face."

The old servant in blue, Uncle Xiao, wore a worried expression. When he saw Yuan Weiyang's eyes glittering brightly, it was obvious that someone had stirred his interest.

"You little brat!"

He wanted to explode, but Zhou Qiyun was right in front of him. In the presence of this most powerful being of the current age, he couldn't afford to lose his temper.

The Yuan Family had always had few descendants. By Yuan Weiyang's generation, only a handful of its children had lived to adulthood. This ancient Aristocratic Clan was close to being erased from the world, so Uncle Xiao was also worried about Yuan Weiyang's safety and didn't want him getting too close to dangerous people.

After a while, auspicious clouds drifted across the sky. Dragons appeared and disappeared within them, and when they drew near, they turned out to be four divine dragons pulling a treasure carriage.

Those dragons were Dragon Gods, carrying a heavy aura of Incense Qi. They were likely wooden or stone carvings of dragons that had received offerings for many years and thus gained the ability to ride the clouds and summon mist.

Zhou Qiyun boarded the Imperial Carriage, and Xu Ying and Yuan Weiyang followed. The carriage looked small from outside, but its interior was extremely spacious. Yuan Qi lowered his head and slithered inside, discovering that even lying down within the carriage left him with room to spare.

Could it be a magical treasure? he wondered.

The four divine dragons pulled the Imperial Carriage into the clouds and set off into the distance.

Xu Ying lifted the curtain and looked outside. White clouds drifted gently as the Imperial Carriage passed through the mist. The moisture was heavy, and soon the inside of the carriage was soaked.

Water kept dripping from the bodies of the four divine dragons pulling the Imperial Carriage. Occasionally, lightning struck a divine dragon within the clouds, bursting into flashes of fire. Whenever that happened, the scent of Incense Qi could be smelled.

Xu Ying closed the window and looked out through the glazed pane to keep the carriage from becoming too damp.

Just as the Imperial Carriage emerged from the clouds, a magnificent landscape suddenly rushed toward them. The mountain peaks soared ten thousand ren high, steep as if cut by blades, thrusting straight up from the ground. No one knew what terrifying creatures dwelled in the mountains; their roars formed layers of visible sound waves that shook outward!

The Incense Qi around the four divine dragons was even scattered considerably by the vibrations. Their forms wavered, the clouds beneath their feet became disordered, and the Imperial Carriage jolted violently.

Zhou Qiyun gave a snort. His voice was not loud, yet lightning suddenly flashed and thunder roared within that magnificent mountain, as if an invisible giant had slammed a fist into the source of the roar, shaking even the valleys violently.

The roar stopped abruptly.

Yuan Qi praised him. "Old Ancestor Bai Mei is incomparably overbearing. My grandfather lost to him, and he lost without shame!"

Xu Ying looked outside. The four divine dragons pulled the carriage around the thick mountain peaks and passed through a gorge between two mountains. Below them flowed a bright great river. Seen from above, it looked like a silver ribbon fluttering in the breeze, reflecting the sunlight in glittering ripples.

Vaguely, he seemed to see fish-dragons leaping from the great river.

The rivers and mountains were like a painting, magnificent as a song.

The four dragons pulled the Imperial Carriage onward for who knew how many miles, yet they still saw no human cities. Xu Ying suddenly thought of something frightening. "Just how large is the new land?"

Why had they flown for so long without seeing Lingling City?

He had not even seen the Xiang River or the Xiao River. Yongzhou City was nearby too, so why couldn't he see Yongzhou either?

He looked into the distance. Towering mountains stood everywhere, rising into the clouds. He couldn't help feeling uneasy. There wasn't a single place here that he recognized!

"When I entered the new land, it had already grown to about eight hundred li along both banks of the Nai River."

Zhou Qiyun gazed out the window. "I don't know how much farther the new land has grown during this time."

A towering tree appeared ahead. Its crown surpassed the surrounding mountains, while mist drifted beneath it.

Xu Ying saw the Nai River again. The towering tree grew at a bend in the river, and the river had changed course because of it.

"It's a locust tree!" Yuan Qi's huge head crowded beside the window. He pressed his eyes to the frame and looked outside, recognizing the species.

Xu Ying stared in a daze. He had never seen or even heard of a locust tree this enormous!

"Trees are immortals born from nature. So long as the tree does not wither or break, and its roots are not eaten away and rotted by insects, it can live forever. This tree is the same."

Zhou Qiyun was deeply moved. "Great Locust Tree has grown for an unknowable length of time. It could be called a locust-tree immortal in the Mortal World. Though it grew in the underworld, a place unsuitable for growth, it survived for ages because no one cut it down and became an immortal tree. Great Locust Tree is also called the Yang Locust. It is the most yang and most unyielding thing in the underworld, where no ghost can invade it! You can sense the spirit of Great Locust Tree."

Hearing this, Xu Ying released his divine consciousness. Sure enough, he sensed an ancient divine consciousness slowly circulating within the towering locust tree—heavy, low, ancient, and profound.

He didn't know what Great Locust Tree was saying. Perhaps it was merely chanting without meaning, or perhaps it was expounding its insights into life and the Great Dao. For an ancient life-form such as this, language seemed to have already lost its meaning.

The tree was covered in countless locust blossoms. It was spring, the season when locust blossoms bloomed. The golden blossoms covering the tree were on the verge of opening, yet their fragrance had already spread through the air.

Xu Ying caught the fragrance and felt his vital energy rise inside him without his realizing it!

"This is absolutely a blessed cultivation ground. Once the locust blossoms open, the Heaven and Earth Vital Energy will surely grow even denser!"

The dragon carriage was heading straight toward the locust tree. When they arrived beneath it, Xu Ying discovered that an ancient palace stood there, with Zhou Family disciples entering and leaving. Before the palace, Xu Ying looked up and saw Bird Seal Insect Script written above the entrance.

"Huaihua Palace Blessed Land," Xu Ying silently read, saying nothing.

These were ancient characters. Even the Great Bell couldn't recognize them, and Xu Ying decided it was best not to show off in front of Zhou Qiyun.

The Huaihua Palace Blessed Land had most likely been built by people of the past who discovered that cultivating beneath the locust tree yielded twice the result with half the effort. They had treated this place as a Blessed Land and constructed the palace here.

But for some reason, those people had abandoned Huaihua Palace. Now that the new land had emerged, the Zhou Family's experts had found this place and made it their base for exploring the new land.

"Then why did the people of the past abandon this place?"

Xu Ying was puzzled. "The Heaven and Earth Vital Energy here is dense, making this a Blessed Land. By rights, it should absolutely have been fought over. Even if it lies in the underworld, it should have been occupied by an underworld god or some other underworld powerhouse, rather than left empty."

The dragon carriage slowly descended. Someone had already opened the palace gates. The four divine dragons led the way as the carriage entered Huaihua Palace.

Zhou Qiyun got off the carriage and instructed the old servant who had come to greet him, "Buyi, take Young Master Xu and Young Master Yuan to study the Tuo Yu Immortal Scripture."

Xu Ying and Yuan Weiyang descended from the Imperial Carriage. The old servant named Buyi bowed and said, "Young masters, please follow me."

The old servant in blue, Uncle Xiao, took two more looks at him. He knew that this old servant's cultivation was unfathomably deep. He was the chief steward of the Zhou Family's inner residence, had been granted the surname Zhou, and was called Zhou Buyi.

Xu Ying immediately circulated the Taiyi Guiding Technique. The sky was instantly filled with rolling, peculiar floral fragrance carrying abundant vital energy. It transformed in the air into a field of Dao encompassing about a mu, and Dao Seeds constantly flew into Xu Ying's body.

Seeing this, Yuan Qi also circulated the Great Sun Guiding Technique. He felt his cultivation rising without pause and praised inwardly, "When cultivating elsewhere, I can only cultivate for a stretch of time in the morning. Yet beneath this Great Locust Tree, I can cultivate day and night without stopping. It's just a pity that the locust blossoms only bloom for less than half a month."

But even less than half a month was equivalent to cultivating outside for an entire year. What was more, the season of the blossoms' fullest bloom had yet to arrive!

What was more, the locust blossoms of Great Locust Tree contained vital energy—almost purely yang vital energy—which saved who knew how many steps of tempering vital energy.

Seeing how brazenly the man and snake were behaving, the old servant Zhou Buyi sneered inwardly. "Demon Cultivators!"

Yuan Weiyang looked at the field of Dao above Xu Ying's head in surprise. He quickly saw its wonders and said, "Demon King Xu, your cultivation technique is very strange. Watching you cultivate, I can see that you're already different from other Demon Cultivators. It seems to be another extraordinary path."

Xu Ying said, "This is a method of planting the Dao Seed that I comprehended by accident. If you want to learn it, I can teach you."

Yuan Weiyang thought for a moment. "I need to ask Mother before I can answer you."

Xu Ying was deeply puzzled. He didn't understand why learning the method of planting the Dao Seed required asking one's parents.

Uncle Xiao, however, felt his heart tremble. "Is Weiyang planning to exchange techniques with him? Only a major matter like exchanging techniques would require asking the Mistress! But how could the Yuan Family's technique be lightly revealed to outsiders? What method of planting the Dao Seed could compare with the Yuan Family's ancestral technique?"

He looked at Xu Ying with intense vigilance. "Little swindler! If I weren't by his side, he might trick the Yuan Family's technique right out of him!"

Xu Ying followed Zhou Buyi into a great hall. Inside were men and women, old and young, standing, sitting, or lying down in a thousand strange postures.

One person had grown three heads and six arms. His neck stretched long, and he held three books before and behind him, three brushes in his hands, staring at the books while writing and sketching.

Another had eyes growing from his forehead, while eyes had also grown from both his hands. He seemed to be examining the scriptures floating in the air from bizarre angles.

Yet another was sleeping on his back, snoring like thunder, while divine consciousness spilled from his mind and floated through the air like bubbles. His soul sat inside one of the bubbles, staring at the scriptures drifting through the air and repeatedly attempting various techniques.

Someone else was surrounded by books and sheets of paper piled as high as mountains, enclosing him at the center. He had eighteen arms, which constantly flipped through various classics to verify the scriptures.

Some had worried themselves white-haired. Some muttered to themselves with crazed expressions. Others tore out handfuls of their own hair, having already gone bald.

Suddenly, someone burst into loud laughter and shouted, "I understand! I understand!"

Then he began vomiting blood in great mouthfuls. Someone slapped him and shouted, "Beast, what did you understand?" Only then did he come to his senses.

The scriptures floating in the air were sheets of golden paper covered in handwritten characters. Judging from the handwriting, it seemed to be written by a woman, and the script was graceful.

Light seeped from the golden paper, projecting the characters into the air. Everyone in the hall could study them.

Yuan Qi was so excited that he could barely contain himself. He said to Xu Ying, "There are books to read here! I finished all the books in my house over the past hundred years! I've read a great many books. If there's anything you don't understand, you can ask me!"

The old servant Buyi said, "Young Master Xu, Young Master Yuan, these characters contain the contents of the Tuo Yu Immortal Scripture."

Xu Ying looked up. The Tuo Yu Immortal Scripture began with a basic Guiding Technique, followed by gathering qi, knocking on the gate, intersecting refinement, Second Knock on the Gate, the Layered Tower, the Jade Pool, the Divine Bridge, Third Knock on the Gate, and finally ascension.

It was a complete "Demon Race cultivation technique"!

There were other contents as well, which should be spells, divine abilities, and alchemical formulas.

"What is there to decipher?" Xu Ying was utterly perplexed.

In his view, the Tuo Yu Immortal Scripture had already laid out the cultivation process clearly, plainly, and unmistakably. Every step of cultivation had been written down in perfect detail. So long as one cultivated step by step, there shouldn't be any major problems.

Yet within this great hall, the Zhou Family's many geniuses had studied until their hair turned white, struggling to comprehend and grasp it. They had even consulted various classics, as though deciphering it were extraordinarily difficult.

"The Tuo Yu Immortal Scripture is an qi-refining technique for women. If men cultivate it, I'm afraid they'll first lose their primal yang."

After roughly scanning it once, Xu Ying saw the problem. Those who cultivated the Tuo Yu Immortal Scripture would soon lose all their primal yang, transforming it into primal yin and becoming male in appearance but female in body.

If women cultivated it, there would be no problem. On the contrary, their progress would be astonishingly rapid. However, parts of this technique also seemed vague and incomplete.

He also took a rough look at the spells and divine abilities within the scripture. Most of them were spells and divine abilities that could only be used in conjunction with the cultivation technique. Without learning the technique, one probably couldn't unleash their power.

Yuan Weiyang, however, was very interested in the Tuo Yu Immortal Scripture. She began reading from the opening and studied it extremely carefully.

Xu Ying came to her side and whispered, "Brother Yuan, this is a cultivation technique for women. Men can't cultivate it."

Yuan Weiyang whispered, "I feel this technique seems very suitable for me. It appears to complement the Yuan Family's Nuo arts."

Uncle Xiao's expression darkened as he appeared behind them. He reached out and separated the two of them. "Young Master, your heads are practically touching. Mind your boundaries."

At that moment, Xu Ying noticed another dozen or so old men with white hair and pale faces seated in the center of the hall. They weren't looking at the scriptures floating in the air, but were instead staring at a piece of green jade bamboo floating above the sacrificial altar in the center of the hall.

It was a green jade slip.

The jade slip was about a foot long, emerald green and translucent. It looked as though it had been carved from fine jade, yet also like a bamboo shoot that had just broken through the earth. One could almost smell its faint bamboo fragrance.

A line of characters was written on the jade bamboo. They were Bird Seal Insect Script!

Xu Ying's heart pounded violently. "This is the true Tuo Yu Immortal Scripture! No, it isn't the Tuo Yu Immortal Scripture. The characters on this jade bamboo record the Great Yin Origin Nourishing Technique!"