Refining Destiny Clusters

The first stage of Daoist Art cultivation was the Refining Destiny Clusters.

The process was very simple: sense the Destiny Clusters, activate the Destiny Clusters, and light up the Destiny Clusters.

Of course, this simplicity was relative to Lan Yi, a top-tier psionic cultivator reborn into this life. With his cultivation experience from before his rebirth, sensing the Destiny Clusters was essentially skipped.

Activating the Destiny Clusters was even simpler.

With psionic energy assisting him, this step was merely a matter of activating the procedures in order, allowing the sleeping, fragile Destiny Clusters to slowly accept nourishment from the psionic energy. Most Daoist Art organs were extremely fragile when first activated. If they accepted psionic energy that was too violent from the natural world, cultivation would be tantamount to suicide.

The only slightly difficult part was lighting up the Destiny Clusters.

For psionic cultivators, this was when the true Refining Destiny Clusters began.

As they absorbed psionic energy and promoted activation, the Destiny Clusters would continuously spread outward from their original positions until they covered the body inside and out, forming a colossal network.

This was the completion of the Refining Destiny Clusters. Cultivators called this minor realm the Impenetrable Realm.

Before the Destiny Clusters reached the Impenetrable Realm, the spiritual power contained in the human body was too weak. All Daoist Arts had to draw on and amplify the power of the present world before they could be cast. Only after the Refining Destiny Clusters reached the Impenetrable Realm could one cast Daoist Arts out of thin air.

In other words.

Before reaching the Impenetrable Realm, a cultivator's combat power was extremely limited if he encountered a sudden battle. Even after reaching the Impenetrable Realm, the problems of psionic energy reserves and Destiny Cluster overload would still plague cultivators deeply.

Lan Yi was an exception.

His rebirth had brought him the most basic psionic furnace from the Nine Heavens Responding Primordial Treasury.

Thus, even without reaching the Impenetrable Realm, he could still rely on relatively abundant psionic energy and his rich knowledge of Daoist Arts to cast enduring and overwhelmingly powerful Daoist Arts. The Nine Heavens Responding Primordial Treasury was also a typical destiny diagram that borrowed strength from Heaven and Earth and united the body with mountains, rivers, the sun, and the moon. It grew richer in psionic energy the longer the battle continued.

Cang Hua had an advantage in constructing the Impenetrable Realm.

She did not need to lay the road and build at the same time. Instead, she could lay the road first, then carry out construction rapidly.

With the mutual stimulation between the Destiny Clusters brought by transplanting Prison Suppression, and under Lan Yi's deliberate control, Cang Hua followed the track that had been laid without pause over the past forty-eight hours, reaching the Impenetrable Realm at the fastest possible speed!

At that very moment, on the rooftop of the International Journalists' Club's foreign-style building.

A faint ivory-colored radiance seeped from Lan Yi's body. This was Cang Hua, which covered his entire body. After successfully reaching the Impenetrable Realm, the psionic radiance no longer appeared as drifting strands. Instead, it radiated outward in an orderly halo. Yet the halo flickered erratically, like a guttering candle in the wind that might go out at any moment.

After reaching the Impenetrable Realm, every part of the body could freely absorb and release the psionic energy that had previously been absorbable only by the Destiny Cluster sites. This led to the phenomenon of external demons invading under interference from natural psionic forces such as light, fire, electricity, magnetism, and sound waves. In the Daoist Scriptures, this was also called a heavenly tribulation.

Lan Yi's advancement was extremely fast. If he could not quickly stabilize the balance of psionic energy within and without,

the rampaging psionic energy inside him would transform into an uncontrolled Electromagnetic Daoist Art, enough to turn him into a fragrant Peking roast duck!

To be safe, I'd better use Prison Suppression.

Lan Yi responded to the heavenly tribulation with rational calmness and activated the newly transplanted Prison Suppression.

Subdue the Heart Ape! Integrate the Dao with the Divine!

The psionic halo, which had still been flickering and slightly turbulent, instantly stabilized.

The bizarre, fantastical visions caused by external demons invading his mind, along with the discomfort and imbalance brought by the various violent natural psionic forces, were all suppressed by a will as ruthless and cold as a machine. He also rapidly adapted to the violent psionic energy outside. Before long, he safely passed through this wave of heavenly tribulation.

Lan Yi exhaled a breath of foul air.

He had done it.

Even among the prodigies who had been reborn, Lan Yi's progress was still terrifying. In theory, as long as resources and knowledge kept pace, Daoist Art realms could be raised rapidly. But in actual practice, without unwavering execution and the will to advance at any cost, one would certainly be slowed by external demons, heavenly tribulations, and crises of life and death.

Before his rebirth, there was a saying within the River Civilization mocking Lan Yi: if eating shit could make him grow stronger without end, that bastard Lan Yi would definitely wolf it down by the mouthful.

At that moment, Lan Yi

had already reached perfection in the Refining Destiny Clusters through Daoist Art.

His martial arts were a step slower, currently at the Divine Form stage.

And the first Artificial Divine Realm still had plenty of time for him to improve.

But as always,

realm did not necessarily equal combat power. This was especially true of the reborn. Aside from a few brain-dead fools, nearly every reborn person possessed vast practical combat experience and reserves of Daoist Arts. These psionic cultivators had passed through countless Artificial Divine Realms and fought all kinds of demons and monsters. Their strength could not be summarized by realm alone.

After successfully reaching the Impenetrable Realm,

Lan Yi felt no joy.

Everything should have been this way. He had always been supposed to be this strong.

He took stock of his current condition.

The psionic furnace still had forty-two percent of its reserves. As for weapons, there was nothing worth mentioning. His spellcasting material was Cang Hua. His martial arts were auxiliary; before reaching the Dharma Form, they were meaningless and could not interfere with battles between psionic cultivators.

As for Daoist Arts, aside from Colorless Eyes,

the Nansheng Sect had two usable arts: Steel Armor Divine Thunder and Gengjin Sword Qi.

Shenxiao Peak Daoist Art had three usable arts: Palm Thunder, Demon Subduing Rope, and Lightning Pool Downpour.

Lan Yi directly skipped Steel Armor Divine Thunder and Palm Thunder. These two Daoist Arts were far too familiar to him.

Gengjin Sword Qi used magnetic force to link and control the Geng Jin Qi extracted from iron veins, allowing it to change and fly at the caster's whim. It could cut through iron like mud and was impossible to guard against. It could even channel magnetic baleful intent and transform it into iron flowers. Together with Steel Armor Divine Thunder, it was hailed as one of the two great can-opening divine arts!

Lan Yi's assessment: an enhanced version of an armor-piercing steel needle round.

Demon Subduing Rope: demons and monsters touched it and died instantly. At its core, it controlled electric current and voltage to create two waves with identical frequencies but opposite transmission directions, producing a standing wave. The final result was a high-lethality arc snare formed in an instant. The particularly sinister aspect of this Daoist Art was that it could destroy other people's Daoist Arts.

Lan Yi's assessment: The casting tell was easy for cultivators to detect, but if they were caught, they would probably die on the spot.

Lightning Pool Downpour: lightning poured from the pool as if divine punishment had descended. By storing energy in advance and creating ionization channels, it unleashed a powerful Daoist Art that bombarded the target area relentlessly. Even someone hiding in an underground air-raid shelter would be locked onto by the falling lightning and violently blasted apart through the omnipresent ionization channels.

Lan Yi's assessment: an area bombardment spell with built-in targeting.

Steel Armor Divine Thunder and Palm Thunder alone were enough for Lan Yi to dominate Artificial Divine Realm 1909.

And now, he had mastered three more Daoist Arts.

These three Daoist Arts gave him confidence to investigate certain deeper—and more dangerous—secrets of this world. Lan Yi knew perfectly well that this world was not as simple as it appeared. This was, after all, an Artificial Divine Realm.

The village Huo Yuanjia had accidentally entered while wandering outside.

Everywhere in it exuded a strange aura.